Category Archives: News

This week we will be presenting the final piece of the Between Two Pelicans interview with USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne and while transcribing the interview I ruminated on the power of language, especially when used by a leader. When in a leadership position one’s words carry more weight than those of the crowd. Words of praise and encouragement from a captain or coach has a demonstrably greater effect than criticism, which is why good leaders limit their criticism and negativity and strive instead to encourage and point out the positive instead. This is a key facet to refereeing as well because when you are the Sir (which is somehow a non-gendered term for referee) you have authority oozing out of your pores. You are the Sole Judge Of Fact And Law and what you say, as well as how you say it, matters. Relationships can be built or broken and how you say what you say can determine what happens and whether you have players complying with your vocal cues or resisting them. This applies to referee/coach interaction as well. A wise player, coach or referee will think and measure their words to achieve the desired effect.

This is not news and if you get a chance to talk to Dr Bruce Carter he has a wonderful story about two English coaches who were about to utterly destroy an underperforming exchange referee before wisdom intervened.

Words are the building blocks of thought. It has been claimed that English is the largest language in the world – usually by native English speakers – but while English is a large and varied language, that is frankly nonsense. It is true that the English language has great abundance of words all with subtly different meanings, but so does nearly every other language. French and Spanish will have several conjugations of the same verb and will inflect much more than English while the German habit of creating new words by sticking several others together makes the potential vocabulary huge. You can spend an amusing time on the internet just looking up “words in xxx language that we need in English”… and I haven’t even gone beyond European languages. The point is there are a variety of options when it comes to choosing exactly what you want to say and meaning exactly what you intend.

Without the correct words we can not articulate our thoughts and many experts suggest that without the correct words we can’t even think them properly because we have no context or manner of organizing our thoughts. There is ample evidence of this throughout history as new concepts came into being and suddenly join the zeitgeist, leaving people to look back at the past with a look of “what were those people thinking?” The simple answer is, they weren’t, or at least they weren’t thinking the same way people did later. The words to express the thoughts didn’t exist so, by extension, the thoughts didn’t exist.

As power and authority are gathered then one’s words have greater effect. They not only help steer other’s thinking, but more importantly, provide a window into how the speaker thinks. This is why the Dr Seuss vocabulary of our current President alarms so many people – it indicates a mind that can not grasp subtle nuance and lacks the means to create complex thought. Speaking with Dan Payne left me with the impression that not only was Dan passionate, but thoughtful. He was very articulate and made very sure that when answering questions he addressed all of USA Rugby, not just the shiny bits. The men’s 7s team gets all the publicity but he made sure to speak to the accomplishments of our women, who have by most measures outperformed the men. He extolled the progress and hard work of our youth programs. Even when he was walking around a subject he didn’t distract, change the subject or obfuscate, but thoughtfully and intelligently said nothing. In short, he used his words. That is a skill I can appreciate and admire.

Now it is time to Bring The Payne.

Between Two Pelicans

This week, as noted above, we present the final chapter in Hail Pelicus’ beloved interview series “Between Two Pelicans, The Dan Payne Tapes”. It all comes down to money with USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne. Sit back and relax as we present Part 1 of our interview:

Hail Pelicus: We have already touched on this subject: money. Money and also Rugby International Marketing – RIM. It is reported that there is a $1million shortfall in USA Rugby and there were some people who were let go. Are there any plans to rectify this? Does Strategy 2020 address this or is that a separate initiative and finally, isn’t this the issue that RIM was created to solve?

Dan Payne: I would say that if you look at Strategy 2020 financial accountability and sustainability is one of the key focal points especially in 2017. We have to live within our means but that also means that we don’t have to be happy with what our means are. We have to be prudent – we have to be disciplined and only spend what we have but at the same time we have to go out and generate new revenue and revenue streams. RIM was created for that very reason – to create additional revenue however until 2019, 2020, we are set with a static licensing fee. We are just getting a licensing fee from RIM for the next three years with a predetermined amount with the hope that as they commercialize the game and drive additional revenue that in 2020 when they can pay a larger dividend.

HP: I didn’t realize it was a fixed rate contract.

DP: Yea…

HP: You inherited RIM from your predecessor Nigel Melville. You mentioned there is a 3 year contract. Do you see this as the way to go forward? From the outside perspective is appears as if RIM has produced very little outside of The Rugby Channel and I don’t see anything outside of that they have produced or generated on their own.

DP: It takes time to prove – we can’t accelerate or speed up the results. We will know three or four years from now. If the intent of RIM is successful it will be a great resource for USA Rugby. It will have helped create the revenue we need to really grow and accelerate the development of our players and the game as a whole and that will have a knock on effect and continue to add value. I don’t waste a lot of time thinking about it because it is what it is – it is the world I live in, so we need for them to have success. We need The Rugby Channel to have success. We need for RIM to have success with the commercial assets they have.

HP: So if it proves successful then we would continue with it and we might see more RIM jobs in the future?

DP: …

(EDITOR’S NOTE: There were some technical difficulties with the recording for the next few minutes so Mr Payne’s response is sadly lost.)

HP: Thank you again for taking the time to speak with Hail Pelicus and I notice that while you have a jacket you are not wearing a tie so the Northern California Rugby Referee Society would like to rectify that situation. (Hands Dan a NCRRS tie)

DP: That’s phenominal. I will probably wear this to my next Nor Cal event.

And there you have it. Please note, Mr Payne that we here in Pelicanland will be watching carefully the next time you are in Northern California that you keep your promise and proudly sport our tie.

This Month’s Society Meeting

Next Wednesday will be the final officially scheduled referee meeting of the season and the last good time to get your kit. This includes the boxes of track suits and kit bags that still infest my house and need to go.

The meeting will be held April 12, from 6:00-9:00 at the SFGG clubhouse on Treasure Island. Plan on coming early to play touch and enjoy some food and drink.
Here are the topics:

Eric Rauscher – Technical Zone, What and Why
Paul Bretz – Effective Team of 3 or more

You Ordered It Now You Gotta Pay For It

Expect invoices this week from Dan Wilson for the kit that has been ordered and handed out. If you have any disagreements with your invoice please let Dan and I know and I will be happy to tell you that you are wrong.

Kit For Sale

I am assuming that if you had earned and wanted your free jersey then you would have it by now. I will be selling jerseys as well as the rest of the kit at the Society Meeting.

Pelicans Abroad

Last week we had a report from Larry Freitas’ trip to the Sceptered Isle. He was very impressed with everything he saw and wrote about it in great detail so I split the report up. As promised, here is his second report:

Saturday the 11th the cloud returned, but at least it was in the mid-50’s, not the 40’s at in the previous week. Jack picked me up at the resort at 10am and took me to some farm where there was a gathering of locals, some on horse back, mostly women, in boots, white tights and navy or black flannel jackets, with black helmets. You guessed it, this was a fox hunt! There must have been 50 hounds let loose as two guys in red jackets tooted the horns for the start, but only after about a half hour of socializing amongst the onlookers, mostly elderly English, but with mostly west country accents, not BBC or RP accents, very tweedy non the less. Refreshments were handed out by women with platters of all sorts of delicacies and pastries, and mulled wine, orange juice, and anything but water. We got in Jack’s Jeep and took off after the hunt, and he had a good sense as to where they were headed, and we could see them riding up and down the hillside, riding through the glen, whatever, but I was just amazed and flabbergasted buy the whole event. I did get some great photos! Then it was on to rugby match at Bideford, hosting North Petherton. King George the V Ground a nice pitch, with covered grandstand on one side, and the clubhouse adjoining. Old Boys at the match in blazers, ties, scarves. The visitors won, and Stephen Bubyer was refereeing his first 6th level match. Jack and I were joined by Zerren. After the match everyone was packed into the clubhouse for a viewing of England thrashing Scotland. Afterwards we went down to Bude for dinner. One thing I learned is that Devon and Cornwall don’t like each other much.

Sunday arrived, and Stephen picked me up at 8:30am as he was heading to Topsham for a morning’s teenage boy’s match, and I went along for a ride so as to referee Topsham Exonian Ladies hosting Paignton Ladies. The game was originally scheduled for Paignton, but had been switched to Topsham. I had made arrangements for lodgings in Paignton, with the rugby club there and lodgings near the beach and train station. So I took the train to Paignton from Topsham, and got a ride with a few of the ladies back to Topsham to referee their match. Paignton had brought along 11, but Topsham had a few extra players, and at kick off the sides were even at 14 on the pitch. Zerren warned me that the last ten minutes of the match could see Topsham running away with a win because of their superior fitness, if the game was close in score. This game was considered a ‘friendly’ match that would not be reflected in division standings, as Topsham is one of the better women’s teams in the Devon and Cornwall area, and fighting for the top position in the table, and they were to score early and often for a 37-0 halftime lead. Paignton responded with a try early in the second half and were to score two more, but it all ended 56-17 for Topsham Exonian Ladies. I was impressed by the ball handling and passing ability of either side, some speedy runners who left would be tacklers well behind, and have to say that Topsham have two players, second rows, both a bit over 6 feet in height, one of them a very good runner with ball in hand, and also a very good counter rucker who also a number of times arrived at the tackle early to poach ball out of the hands of the Paignton runner. It was something to see Paignton’s little blond winger, not much over 5 feet in height, take her down in a tackle at one point in the match.

We all gathered in the clubhouse afterwards for some food and drink, mostly ales and ciders, sausages and chips (what we call fries). Got back to Paignton and my little bungalow that was home for the next two nights. Paignton is a bit on the ‘seedy’ side I was to find out. The 1902 Paignton RFC clubhouse is a bit old and decrepit, and so is much of the town center. There is a steam train that takes on some ten miles and over the hill to the south and west to Dartmouth, a much more upscale place. Unfortunately the train doesn’t run on Mondays until April, and that meant another taxi ride to Dartmouth, taking the ferrry accross to the town, and enjoying what it has to offer, including the British Navy’s officer academy up on a hillside, and a castle at the mouth of the estuary that leads out to the sea and English Channel. There are desert palms planted here, so therefore it’s the British Riviera, this part of the English southern coastline of South Devon. Agatha Christie hung out here. The day was the warmest so far, with sun and inching up to 17C or 62F. I had left my shorts back in the bungalow. I got some great photos. Being Monday, and not quite tourist season yet, the castle was, wait for it, closed!

Finallly it was taking a train back to Twickers and Marriot’s, and an upgrade to the 6th floor, which meant, at no extra charge, getting a room with a view, literally, of the pitch!
Got to London that afternoon, and took in Victoria and Albert Museum. Friday the 17th, St. Patrick’s day, saw me boarding British Air for the direct flight back to San Francisco and a balmy 74F late afternoon. Now I’m typing this and looking outside the window on an early Sunday morning, seeing what I saw so often on this trip: cloudy skies!

-Larry Freitas, who will admit to being an Anglophile.

Last Saturday, In Hayward, CA…

Nothing happened.

Playoff Match Reports

It is playoff time again and many of us will be called on to adjudicate these matches. Please note that quite often matches will be listed by seeds, so the game will be something like Pacific #3 vs South #1 or Winner Match 3 vs Winner Match 1. When writing your report narrative please make sure you explicitly identify which team is which so that I can update the team names in our reporting section below. Many thanks to those who did playoff matches already who have made my life easier.

Welcome back, rugby! Yale traveled to Brown in this Ivy-League semi-final match up. The weather cooperated with our 11:00 am kickoff as the air remained cool and dry throughout. The match was relocated from Brown’s all grass rugby field to the turf field complex to keep it from turning into a mud bog. The make shift field was marked as properly as possible, with mobile posts in place and a plenty of width for 15’s.

Brown and Yale seemed evenly matched in size and fitness which accounted for the 5-5 tie at halftime. Brown scored first 10 minutes in, with Yale answering soon after. Lots of great high-intensity running, rucking and passing. A couple repeated infringements from both teams were handled well by the respective captains, buy Yale had considerably more penalties around the breakdown. This is where their inexperience started to show. Brown regrouped at the half and scored immediately upon gathering the ball in the second half, followed soon after by another try. Yale were strong in contact, rucking, mauling and scrumming well but Brown could anticipate Yale’s moves. At one Yale quick-tap penalty, Brown were back 10 but could see the play developing. One center sprinted forward for the intercept and a 60m try. That’s pretty much how the second half went.
(side note to the Ivy League Rugby: Harvard and Dartmouth compete in D1, the remaining Ivy League schools compete in D1-AA).

Date: 04/02/2017
Brown 19 – Princeton 12
Referee: Zanarini, Tom

Thankfully this match was played on a beautiful Sunday afternoon as opposed to a dreadful Saturday. Princeton returned from their South Africa spring break tour on Thursday, beat Penn on Friday, then traveled to Providence on Saturday to take on Brown on Sunday for the D1-AA Ivy League Championship. Both teams came out hard and fast with quick breakdowns and fast backs. There was no real flow to the match, so my commentary is lacking. The players are still having an awful lot of trouble figuring out what is a ruck and what is a tackle-only, even with communication. They want offside calls during open play. They also seem to want play-by-play from me. So, I guess that’s the common thread here; too much chirping from the players. But, not to disparage a very good match. These are both good teams with lots of skill.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Great to have you back in the HP, Tom!)

Date: 04/01/2017
USF 67 – Willamette 5
Referee: Sandhill, Peter

The National Small Colleges Rugby Organization – NSCRO had their annual regional semi-finals hosted at Cal Maritime over the past weekend. Four teams were vying for one spot at the next level. Willamette University traveled from Salem Oregon to play University of San Francisco on a pleasant, even hot, spring morning. Blue skies, sun and a dry field.

The game started clean and tight with a quick try each and scores level at five each. Gradually, USF worn down Willamette, with both consistent forward play especially pick and go patterns, as well as wonderful backs play. To their credit, Willamette hung in there with good spirit.

Thanks to Dillon Wall and JT for AR-ing. What a pleasure.

Date: 04/01/2017
Central Coast 7 – Google 76
Referee: Wilson, Giles

Central Coast have a field which is a bit narrow and slopes very slightly, they elected to play up the hill in the first half when Google won the toss and elected to kick.

Google had most of the possession and territory and the scoring reflects this. They scored 6 tries in the first half with 5 conversions for a 40 – 0 half time score. In the second half Google matched their try count but could only add 3 conversions while Central Coast managed a single converted try in reply. Final Google 76 – Central Coast 7.

The game was sunny and a nice day for rugby. Pretty evenly matched sides meant each meter was hard earned. OC scored first and took the lead early, never looking back. The game digressed and had 3 yellow cards and a red. It ended at full time.

A highly contested first half saw excellent kicking as the teams traded penalties before Jesuit finally got past the stalwart Granite Bay defense to go into the break up 13 to 9. Granite Bay were unable to continue containing Jesuit in the second half, a problem compounded by yellow cards for dangerous play leaving the home team short handed for much of the second half, creating more space for Jesuit to exploit.

This was a well contested match through and through. Point Loma jumped out to an early lead, and maintained it throughout the entire match. Both teams fought hard, and made for a entertaining match. During the first half, there was an issue with tackles starting to become high, but I talked with both captains and made it clear that I wouldn’t stand for that kind of play, and the tackles cleaned up.

Early into the second half, #18 from PLNU failed to wrap in his tackle and jersey slung #15 of Humboldt to the ground. I yellow carded him for the offense. Humboldt took advantage of their 1 man advantage and scored a try and made the conversion. Then, at 58 minutes, #8 of Humboldt stiff-armed #9 of PLNU in the face. I awarded a yellow card for a strike to the face. PLNU was able to add a penalty kick and a final try right at the end of the match, giving them the 44 to 17 win.

First time this year I had to have a water stoppage. Players were certainly overheated in the Marin sun. SFGG started the scoring but seemed to struggling in the waning minutes of the first half. At the half SFGG was up 17-14. Up until the 65th minute the score was 19-29. Congratulations SFGG on a good win competing against a good opponent.

Date: 04/01/2017
Mendocino 17 – Redwood 74
Referee: Bertolone, Cary

A beautiful, sunny, 82 degree afternoon and it was all Redwood in the first half. They scored at will, beginning in the first minute, and took a 38-0 halftime lead. Mendocino showed some heart in scoring three tries in the second half, but Redwood scored 7 more of their own to win 74-17 (Afa thought it was 81-17, but I have not compared my score card with his, yet).
Both teams played with proper enthusiasm with no foul play all day long. All great guys!

CKM started strong with winger Fernando scoring the first of his three long range tries within the first three minutes. Junior Waqavesi orchestrated the CKM backline to perfection which freed up multiple try scorers. CKM had no tee and consequently made no conversions. 35-0 at halftime, with an intercept try scored by the substitute 10, who would repeat his act again in the second half. Motherlode began the second half with momentum and scored two quick tries, keeping CKM on the back foot. But CKM held on, working through their phases, in a dominating display of rugby.

Date: 04/01/2017
San Joaquin 86 – SF Fog 12
Referee: Jury, Jeff

It was a beautiful day in Manteca. The Fog found themselves standing on green grass, which was unique to their season, since everything has gone synthetic in the city. Unfortunately, that uniqueness and San Joaquin’s gearing up for the finals was going to be their undoing.
San Joaquin scored 50 points in the first half, to the Fog’s 12. San Joaquin scored another 36 in the second half with the Fog coming close, but no cigar.
Final San Joaquin 86 SF Fog 12.

Santa Rosa defeated SFGG Green 51-0 on an 82F day in Santa Rosa. 5 tries in the first half and a further 4 in the second were more than enough for Santa Rosa to secure the result, despite playing the last 49 minutes of the match with 14 men after one of their flankers saw red for a punch. Aside from that one incident, the game was played in good spirits. While SFGG only brought 17 players, compared to Santa Rosa’s full complement of 23, this didn’t seem to make much difference. Thanks to both touch judges for the help.

Date: 04/01/2017
South Valley 13 – Colusa 69
Referee: Pohlman, John

South Valley hosted league leader Colusa at Paradise Park in Morgan Hill the past Saturday. Beautiful day and nice location except for a small rutted field.
Colusa scored first with a nice support try by #10 Brett Monroe. South Valley answered with a penalty three minutes later and almost took the lead but kicker Chili #3 missed the second attempt. Colusa’s hard charging #8 Ardy scored his first try. Followed by #9 Juan Loza first try of the day. Juan scored a few more as Colusa wore down the South Valley defense. The first half was competitive and finished with Colusa leading 26-13.
The second half started with Ardy catching the kick off breaking a half dozen tackles faking a couple of passes and scoring a 60 meter try. The defense for South Valley wore down and Colusa’s hard runners continued to break tackles for scores. Thus started the seven try s scored in the second half. Final score Colusa 69 South Valley 13.
The game was played in good spirits with both teams respecting each other. Good stuff.

Saturday pitted the No. 2 Davis vs No. 3 UC Santa Cruz. The match began with a Slugs catching Davis snoozing and scoring a corner try in the opening minute to take the early lead. Still a bit dazed Davis countered with putting up 3 points on the board off a Santa Cruz penalty. Davis slowly started to awake. They converted the next score that came 8 minutes later. SC not wanting to stay within striking distance mimicked Davis and scored their own Penalty Goal off a Davis infringement. With 20 minutes gone in the first half the score was Davis 10 – SC 8. It was incredibly close. With 10 minutes remaining in the half, Davis made a push. Nailing and clawing for any points to put daylight between them and the Slugs. They managed a try, a converted try, and another penalty goal. At the half Davis had stretched it to 25 – 8.

Davis felt their opponent giving them a window of opportunity that extended into the second half scoring 19 unanswered points in the opening 10 minutes. This seemed to put the game out of reach for the Slugs, but they were determined to go out fighting. Santa Cruz scored a converted try within the last 15 minutes of the match. But during that time, Davis scored two converted of their own in an almost tit for tat ending. Santa Cruz did have the last final push, scoring two converted tries within the last 90 seconds.

Final: Davis 58 – Santa Cruz 29

Date: 04/02/2017
Point Loma University 35 – University of San Francisco 19
Referee: Hinkin, James

A perfect day for rugby at Cal Maritime saw Point Loma and USF meet for the Challenge Cup, the winner advancing to meet other NSCRO Cup winners, or something like that. Steve Hiatt – the poor man’s Paris Hilton – has all the details. The game was fast and fun and clean – just what you want. The players were committed to the tackles and ran with gusto, if not with great skill at times. some early nerves led to several knock ons but things soon settled down. PL proved to be dominant early and rang up 2 tries and a penalty in the first half while squandering several great scoring opportunities. USF were resilient and took their chances with an opportunistic try to make the half time score 17-7.

USF played better in the second half matching PL with 2 tries each but that, along with a couple of long range penalties from the impressive boot of the PL #9, meant that the game was always out of reach. Great game and great effort from both sides, both well coached and well captained.

Date: 04/02/2017
Chico St 18 – UC Davis 26
Referee: Pescetti, David

In the weekend finale pitted a rematch of two weeks ago, where Davis faced off against Chico. Davis looking to enact revenge over the loss suffered in the not so distant past. However, Chico was playing without their stud tight head prop.

Davis held firm in the first half holding Chico scoreless. Davis was able to create two converted try lead going into the half.

Davis’s two half mirror each other. Scoring both around the 4, and 13 minute mark. And only missed one conversion.
Chico made all their points in the second half. Coming out of the gate taking points with two penalty goals making 6 starter in the first 10 minutes. After another stalemate for 20 minutes. Chico made a late surge scoring twice in the last five minutes.

However time ran out and Davis moves on.

This Week’s Photo

CSUMB Head Coach and Friend of the Society Steve Hiatt got a chance to meet a hero. I’ll leave the reader to guess who the hero was. (L-R: Mike Conn, Sir Graham Henry, Steve Hiatt)

People often ask me about time. How long is it until the half? When can the sin bin come back? What is the nature of time? Is time travel possible? (To answer the last two, I usually refer to the commonly held model of spacetime that is a natural result of Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity, where the speed of light (c) in a vacuum is constant for all observers and, as a result of the famous equation E = mc2, poses a hard limit on how fast a material object can travel as in order to accelerate an object energy must be added and conservation of energy requires a proportional increase in the relativistic mass of the object thus requiring an infinite amount of energy to attain lightspeed of what becomes an infinite mass. This effect of gravity also can slow time via gravitational time dilation as an object approaches a deep gravitational well such as a black hole. Strangely enough, the laws of physics have no implicit direction of time in them and, as Richard Feynman pointed out, subatomic particles often move backwards in time relative to their antiparticle, so theoretically time travel is possible but the latest hypothesis on how to achieve that requires moving around black holes and white holes (negative energy gravity wells) to form a wormhole through time and that requires more energy than is currently available in the universe.)

One of the more common questions I get asked is how I manage to make the time to write the Hail Pelicus introduction and the other segments. Well, as it happens my family is quite wealthy so I really don’t have much else to do. You see, I am a trust fund baby. My father invented the umlat used by 80’s metal bands and the residuals for that stroke of genius keep rolling in every time Blue Öyster Cult, Queensrÿche, Motörhead, and Mötley Crüe (to name a few) play a reunion tour, which is pretty constant. We even successfully sued Berkeley Breathed over the use of Deathtöngue and were the real reason the band was renamed Billy and the Boingers. The sweet, sweet cash from that little transaction bought a vacation house in Belize.

As you can see I have plenty of time to carefully craft genuine insight and humor into your weekly Northern California rugby newsletter. Unfortunately, since I am a trust fund baby and never learned the value of hard work, I usually just slap this together at the last minute between massage appointments and lunch at the club. Not that anyone has ever noticed.

The Naming Of The Flock

I would like to expand on this week’s theme of Time. One of the primary duties of referees involves time. While it is true that at the professional and international level there is often a group of officials available to handle the various timekeeping tasks for 99% of us we have to do it all ourselves. We keep track of the match time, stopping when necessary. We keep track of sin bins and blood bins. Knowing that time is a valuable resource we harshly penalize time wasting. One of the first lessons we teach new referees is “be on time”. Very few things will give a worse impression than sauntering up to a match at the last minute or, even worse, late. The concept of advantage allows a referee to roll back time if necessary. More subtle manipulation of time occurs at breakdowns as a good referee knows when to allow time to “let it breathe”. Our own Phil Akroyd is a master of time and demonstrated this keen understanding and special adherence to Law 5 – Time, specifically Law 5.3 – Time Keeping: “The referee keeps the time”. This keenness was captured as This Week’s Photo and is this week’s featured photograph on the web version that you are currently reading. It is no wonder that Phil was assigned to one of the most high profile and probably best played rugby game in the country.

As the Keeper of the Nomenclature, it has been decided that such dedication to one of the most vital roles a referee can play should be recognized.

As it pleases the Senate, Phil Akroyd shall be known forevermore as Pelicus Tempus Procurator!

All Hail Pelicus Tempus Procurator!

Pelicans Abroad

Larry Freitas recently decided to hop over to the Sceptered Isle and squeeze in a few rugby games. For the sake of brevity I have split his report into sections, so here is his first report:

I touched down at Heathrow Airport on March 1st, St. David’s Day, for a two and a half week visit to England which would include refereeing two rugby matches. I stayed at the Twickenham Marriot’s, where I enjoyed a tour of the stadium along with a group of security system sales people, at no charge, as I went along as their ‘guest.’ I did get into London afterwards, and took in the East Embankment, the British Museum with all that stuff that Egypt and Greece would want back, and Sherlock Holmes’ lodgings at 221B Baker Street. The third day of this journey was a cold and rainy one, unlike the first two that were just cloudy and cold, and saw me on a train to the West Midlands and Evesham, where Kevin Falvey, the president of Bredon Star Rugby Club, and his wife Meryl, picked me up at the station. Bredon Star had hosted the California Bald Eagles in October of 2015. We drove on to Rugby to take in the two museums in the town, luckily the rain stopped, and wandered over to the school store, and then as a group of students passed on in their school uniforms, including girls with skirts down to their ankle, we walked over to “The Close” and the adjoining wall with the plaque to William Webb-Ellis. It was then on to Stratford Upon Avon and Julius Caesar that played that night, apparently with some known BBC and ITV and screen actors. On the 4th Bredon travelled to Dursley RFC, in a little village in the south Cotswolds, the game played on the third pitch, which was less muddy and better than the first or second, near the clubhouse, which made me wonder why it’s the third pitch; but it took a walk of about 1/8th of a mile to get to it down a very muddy trail. Dursley won, it was 9C, or 48F, but the wind, from the south, could cut you like a knife! Most onlookers had Wellies on. I got to borrow a pair of ankle high boots.

Skipping on to the 5th, at Bredon’s recreation grounds, the club’s U-17 side took on a team from Lancashire’s Oakham RFC, who were on a weekend tour of the area. The pitch was very muddy after the few days of rain, and the cold that had been hanging around since I had arrived hadn’t left, as the temperature was about 8C, or 46F, at kickoff at 11am. Both sides spent the majority of the match stifling each other’s offense, as the conditions weren’t conducive to running rugby. But at the 30th minute of play one of Bredon’s backs saw a gap, raced through down the right touch line and scored an unconverted try in the corner. The rest of the game was scoreless, and Oakham had a few chances very late, in injury time, to run the ball because of infringements. A knock on and kick into touch ended the match. I had a train to catch in Cheltenham for Barnstaple at 1pm, so it was a quick shower, a few sausages and chips, and Kevin racing me out of town to the train station. For much of the rest of the day I spent in a train carriage, heading southward to Exeter, changing trains there for a rickety train line northwest to the North Devon coast and Barnstaple, where a referee from the Devon Referee Society, Jack Russell, picked me up and then gave me a ride to the Woodford Bridge Country Club, out in the middle of farm country, in a very remote location, some 16 miles from Bude and the northermost stretch of Cornwall’s northwest coast. There’s random bus service in the area, and the nearest village is Holsworthy, six miles away, but not an easy or safe walk with narrow two lane roads and in a very hilly terrain. Woodford Bridge is famous for having hosted Oliver Cromwell during the time that his side was fighting the loyalists in the English Civil War of the mid-17th century. I did get the history lesson on the ride. The next day I took a bus to Bude, walked to the beach there during a storm in which it wasn’t really raining, but drizzing side ways because of the wind. Some fool was out surfing in junky surf inside the harbor walls. I walked to the Bude Rugby Club a mile to the south away from the village and beach. The sun came out, it warmed up a bit, and I walked back to town, visiting the local museum. I had to take a taxi back.

It remained mostly cloudy for a few more days, but it was warming up into the 50’s, or plus 10C, like 11 or 13 or so. Dean Davies, another referee, gave me a tour of the Devon north coast line, and it was unfortunate that it was foggy and cloudy that day, because it’s a coastline that could rival Big Sur. We attended the referee society meeting that evening at Crediton RFC, a very old club in Devon. The major topic was about using a computer service like our Assignr, to assign games. Another ref who lives in Stratton, near Bude, gave me a ride back to Woodford Bridge, Zerren Bale, an up and coming referee in his early 30’s who has an ambition to get up to Level One if he can. Jack Russell is his coach.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: With some patient research I have managed to find a picture of young Zerren Bale’s coach relaxing after a match. Please see below)

Playoff Match Reports

It is playoff time again and many of us will be called on to adjudicate these matches. Please note that quite often matches will be listed by seeds, so the game will be something like Pacific #3 vs South #1 or Winner Match 3 vs Winner Match 1. When writing your report narrative please make sure you explicitly identify which team is which so that I can update the team names in our reporting section below. Many thanks to those who did playoff matches already who have made my life easier.

New Kit

If you weren’t at the last Society Meeting then you missed out on a chance to get your kit, including the kit bags. The (astonishingly stylish) new kit will be distributed if I see you at some point in the next couple of weeks and at the Society meetings. I will do my best to find someone to distribute kit to those who can not make the meetings but feel free to reach out to me at hailpelicus@pelicanrefs.com if you plan to be in the San Jose area.

Please note that I am tired of storing this junk. If you don’t claim your stuff soon I may just dump it in the Guadalupe River while there is still enough water in it to cover up my misdeeds.

The game played out much as the scoreboard indicates. The Cavaliers scored their first try at 01:00 and led 31-5 at halftime. Danville, playing a younger and less experienced side couldn’t keep up with the Pleasanton backs. Pleasanton’s #15 had several electric runs, while the Cavalier forwards owned the middle of the field. To their credit, Danville never lost their resolve and played hard until the final whistle.

Date: 03/25/2017
California 24 – St. Mary’s 27
Referee: Akroyd, Phil

Maybe game of the season at Witter Field for a late afternoon/early evening kick-off. Many Pelicans were out in force to give full support of the game, and help me along my way.

I had a bit of a dodgy start by getting in the way of a very flat pass (under advantage) from the Cal 9 from the base of the ruck, but managed to get out of the way from there on out. The game started a little sluggishly because of some reset scrums early on, but when I figured out that the SMC loose head was simply getting lower than his opponent and having his way, we got some more continuity. Pete Smith reminded me over comms that the play was a bit sluggish, but that was about to change.

The Gaels got 7 points on the board early and Cal fought back with two tries, one being an end to end burner, and one an interception from halfway. Audsley kept SMC in the hunt with his huge boot but Cal looked the more comfortable in the 20 minutes before and 20 minutes after half time. It appeared that SMC had missed their chance as Cal’s fitness usually powers them through the final quarter with ease, and with a 24-13 lead it looked very likely again.

However, Saint Mary’s were not done and they brought the game back to 24-20 with ten to go. Cal were playing a somewhat uncharacteristic and risky game of playing from deep – often inside their own in-goal area – which often compounded problems they made in that area, so they played inside their own half more than they would have wanted.

With three to go, the Gaels decided to have a go from deep inside their own half and fly half Mike McCarthy made quite the jinking run to set up his team with the final score of the game. There was still time for Cal to have the final say, but SMC captain O’Connor got over the top of some isolated Cal attackers and came up with a steal to re-secure possession, ad secure the win.

An unbelievable game and wonderful rugby environment. This game had everything from a big crowd, vocal home and traveling support, TV coverage, open rugby, wonderful tries scored on advantage, extended periods of play, some sauciness and aggression after the whistle, and a close finish. The National Championship game will likely not live up to that one, but if it does, we have another great game to which we can look forward.

Perfect day in Colusa for rugby. Obviously a very one sided match. score at half was 67 – 0. Colusa scored 11 try’s in each half and converted 8 of them.

Date: 03/25/2017
Santa Rosa 1 – Sac Lions 0
Referee: Gordon, Preston

At 9:06pm on Friday night, the Sacramento Lions e-mailed me and the coach of Santa Rosa to say, in pertinent part, “We don’t have numbers for tomorrow. Most guys figured season was over after last week.”

Obviously the score was not 1-0.

Date: 03/25/2017
EPA Razorbacks 27 – Life West 50
Referee: Lane, John

With the field in excellent condition for rugby after recent rain, on a sunny afternoon in Hayward Life West and EPA Razorbacks served up a fast, physical and open game that kept the supporters fully engaged from start to finish.

EPA kicked off and made an early turnover to gain field position. Hands in the ruck by Life gave the first opportunity to EPA but the kick was left and wide. From the restart Life picked up the pace and following some strong tackling, regained possession and through a number of phases stretched the EPA defense to score a converted try for 7-0 at 5 mins. Another hands in ruck penalty by Life on 8 mins got EPA on the board and reduced the deficit to 7-3.

Both sides were competing every breakdown but the next 10 minutes produced no scoring opportunities. EPA were looking to play quickly at every opportunity and a turn-over was moved quickly on 18 minutes to score an unconverted try for the lead at 7-8. After more strong physical play and some good cover defense by both sides Life regained the lead on 27 mins when with excellent offloading in the tackle combined with good supporting lines delivering a converted try for 14-8.

On the next series of play on 28 mins, Life were reduced to 14 men for repeat team infringement at rucks (this followed a warning via their captain shortly before). Despite losing a man Life kept their tempo and stretched the lead with an unconverted try on 34 mins (19-8). While EPA looked to stretch Life while they were down a man it took until the last play of the half for it to pay dividends. An unconverted try wide on the right left the half time score at 19-13 in favor of Life West.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half was played with great intensity. Life scored on 43 mins to extend the lead further, 26-13, but EPA came straight back into the game on 48 mins bringing the score to 26-20. While play remained fairly even in terms of territory for the middle 20 of the second half it was Life who scored 3 tries (2 converted) on 56, 61 and 63 mins. Two of these scores came from turnover ball wide out as EPA chased the game. 45-20 at 63 mins.

Substitutions were frequent by this stage and islander pride in the tackle and the charge into contact came to the fore with some strong but legal contact from both sides of the ball. Both sets of players were obviously enjoying the contest with the crowd fully engaged!

EPA scored on 76 minutes as their scrum-half spotted a defensive gap and was through untouched. Converted for 45-27.

Not to be out done Life finished with an unconverted try with the last play of the game to close out the score at 50-27.

Date: 03/25/2017
Diablo 22 – Baracus 27
Referee: Bertolone, Cary

A supersite for Division 2 with 5 games on the docket, I had the first game between Baracus and Diablo. We kicked off at 10:00 am and Baracus took control, scoring 3 tries and a penalty kick for a 22-0 score, before Diablo scored with one minute left in the half. In the second half, it was much more even with Diablo putting there offence in gear. Baracus did score the next try for a 27-5 lead, but Diablo outplayed Baracus for the last 20 minutes, scoring three tries to none to make the score close. The game was played in good spirits. Thanks to Eric Rauscher for watching and helping me with some pointers and good advice as my referee coach for the day.

Date: 03/25/2017
Vacaville 20 – Fresno 18
Referee: Sandhill, Peter

This was one of several D2 Men’s games held in one day at same venue aka a super-site . Sunny spring weather and a grass field in good condition set the platform for an intense, hard game of rugby. The game started with 25 minutes of fast clean good rugby. Both teams were strong in both forward and back play with a lot of pick and drives off the rucks and a lot of ball to the backs as well, including many kick and chase plays.

Around the 28 min. there was a skirmish between two opposing players and, for about ten minutes, behavior was testy. After talks to the captains and a couple of yellow cards, players brought their full attention back to playing. At halftime, Fresno were up 13-3 after two unconverted tries and a penalty goal each.

If the first half was Fresno’s, the second half was Vacaville’s. Vacaville scored several in the second, including a lucky run away intercept try, off a Fresno attacking play around the Vacaville 22, that showed athleticism and speed. Both teams were in it to the end. Fresno scored on the bell but were unable to convert the try, leaving the score at 20-18.

Date: 03/25/2017
San Jose 10 – Napa 52
Referee: Richmond, Jeff

San Jose scored early when their inside center poached a soft pass off of Napa and took it 40m for the try. After that, it was all Napa. Napa had strong running from their backfield and a stiff defense, denying San Jose any real chance to stay with them. Many thanks to Sam Reagle for the coaching, especially the pointers on better managing the penalty count.

This was a very good game. Silicon Valley was 33-17 at the half time. I thought myself this will be a run over by Silicon Valley. It was a very good come back by Berkeley . Berkeley have enough subs for their team while Silicon Valley only shows up with 16 players. Berkeley uses the ball wisely and controlled the game during the second half. Berkeley uses their fitness against Silicon Valley and that is how they managed to win the game.

Good game for both teams. Good rugby spirit though out the game. Thanks to Ben Parker for his home team and always very good hospitality. Hope Ben will host some more Rugby tournament. Manuia to you all!!!

Exciting rugby match – winner is guaranteed a seed to Nationals. Lead traded hands several times. Chico State’s fitness and line breaks were the difference in the match.

Thanks to David Pescetti and Barry Foley for volunteering to AR – Pescetti definitely earned his keep by confirming a try that I had no visual of!

Date: 03/25/2017
WSU 62 – Cal 15
Referee: Pescetti, David

Ah playoffs. Yes playoffs. It’s that magical part of the year where Jim Mora becomes relevant again.

We had WSU vs Cal in the early fixture. The number one of the North flexed it’s muscles pushing an early lead and never relenting. Opening the first quarter to a 14-0 lead. The back play by Wasu was their key to victory and their high scoring offense. Posting 40 in the first half. The bears fought mightily with their own flashes of brilliance.

WSU, in the end, was just too much and worked their way to the next round.

McClatchy dominated the first half of play leading at the break 42-0. Lamo were able to string together several phases in the second half and scored 21 points; unfortunately the visitors added 27 additional points to close out the game.

Date: 03/26/2017
Chico St 22 – WSU 21
Referee: Bretz, Paul

Congratulations to Chico for making the “sweet 16” round of playoffs and in the process beating both Oregon and Washington State by 1 point in each game. Chico’s backline seemed to find space on the outside of WSU’s center defense and Chico scored first to take a 5-0 lead. WSU countered latter to take the lead and converted their try to make it a 7-5 game. Chico continued to attack and scored in the 30 minute of play to make it 12-7. Toward to waining moments of the first half WSU scored a converted try to end the half 14-12. at the 50th minute WSU extended the lead to 21-12. Mid-way through the 2nd half the game became marred with high tackles. With 5 minutes to go Chico scored a pentaly kick to make it 21-15. WIth a minute to go WSU controlled their scrum and useed pick and drives to slow the game down. However, a tackler jarred the ball from the carrier and the ball landed at the feet of Chico’s fastest player who proceeded to take the ball 70 meters under the posts to take the score 21-20. The conversion kick was successful and Chico won their second game of the series.

Date: 03/26/2017
UC Davis 52 – Stanford 19
Referee: Pescetti, David

Playoff weekend rolled into Sunday where the two top Wild Wild West teams clashed. Defending champs Davis took on hosts Stanford.

Davis was a model of consistency. That model was play it through their speedster backs for numbers wide and let the legs do the rest. Over half their tries were scored by their backs. Stanford scored through their forwards.

Davis scored and converted all of their first half tries, looking like taking the shut out into the half, but Stanford, late into expired time, was able to punch in a try and put 7 up.

Stanford came out rejuvenated and aborted the opening points of the 2nd half. Davis looked stunned, and Stanford looked threatening. Unfortunately, the daze wore off as Stanford tired at the end of the second half as Davis scored 3 times in the last ten minutes.

Davis moves on 52 – 19

This Week’s Photo

Pelicus Tempus Procurator earning his Pelican Name in the Cal – St Mary’s match by carefully adhering to Law 5.3 – The referee keeps the time.

The Wales v France clash last weekend was notable for some good rugby but all anyone could talk about was the ending. It took around 20 minutes to play the last 30 seconds of the match – a statistic you don’t often see outside of basketball. England’s Wayne Barnes was in charge of the match and, as expected, many commentators were complaining that he lost control, but what do you expect? Most sports commentators are chosen because they are big name former players or coaches with big personalities (think John Madden or Charles Barkley) and while they may understand what it takes to compete at the top level, they rarely understand the laws of the game – especially when it comes down to precise, critical, pressured decisions. They deal with the emotion of a match as fans do rather than process what is happening as referees do so it is no surprise that they immediately look to blame the referee if things go wrong. These talking heads almost always come down on the side of the player (“just let them play and they will sort it out”) and have no understanding as to what would actually happen if the ref just lets them play. An all-out brawl would be the just the start.

(To be fair there are many excellent commentators who do understand all aspects of the game and one takes note if they criticize a referee because it is probably well deserved. Unfortunately they are often overshadowed by the Truthiness Brigade. Excitement and controversy sells.)

At the end of this match, Mr Barnes had several key decisions and made them all perfectly while keeping his composure, no mean feat. A masterful performance, I would say. It all started with Wales clinging to a slender lead but defending their line at a scrum. Wales gets pinged for engaging the scrum early and then the French engage in what can only be described as chea… sorry, gamesmanship. A confused looking medical staffer rushes on to pull off French tighthead Uini Atonio, who doesn’t think he is hurt and after Barnes asks him (several times) plays on. After the reset scrum goes down the French medic comes back on and claims Atonio needs to come off for a HIA. At this point Barnes can not overrule the doctor and must allow the replacement.

This is the fun bit. Several French phases run into Wales’ desperate defense which ends up with a yellow card against them for killing the ball. Good call, that. Apparently there is a bit of a language barrier between Barnes and the #4 as he makes sure the replacement prop (who was on earlier) was removed for tactical reasons and not for injury. This is important as a player who is replaced for injury can not come back. It took him several questions, usually a rephrasing of the same question, but Barnes handled it well. Then he has to sort out who is sacrificed and to make it even more complex, France also wants to make a change. Took a while to sort that out.

Then Wales is pinged again at the scrum for an early engagement but this time it is a penalty. This seemed to confuse many talking heads(it was a free kick before!) but it is good refereeing. It was obvious that Wales did not learn their lesson with a free kick so Barnes rightly upgraded to a penalty. The next upgrade is a yellow. Play finally restarts and we now have a biting incident that Barnes did not see and the TMO really was no help on. Barnes’ hands are tied at this point so play on.

All of this scrummaging and resetting and penalties and substitutions and more scrums and more resetting means that the player who was yellow carded earlier…. with 30 seconds left in the match… comes back on. Amazing.

Now we have another scrum and another penalty against Wales. Before the inevitable scrum can be reset there is an issue with the 4th official which stopped the match (again) and turned out not to be an issue with the 4th official (huh?). Eventually France get their try and win the match to Wales’ great disappointment. Players, fans and the media lashed out at the referee for this “travesty” but cooler heads who actually know what they are talking about all agree that Barnes did nothing wrong while under extreme pressure. This ending was a travesty, yes, but not of the referee’s making. Players infringing, biting accusations, technical issues, all of these things combined to create this mess but Wayne Barnes was calm above it all and did what he needed to do.

Moral of the story: If you want to win a match, try scoring more points instead of hoping the referee will bail you out.

Last week a TJ was upset that I ignored his suggestions on how I could referee better. He accused me of not respecting the game while he was running touch holding a dog on a leash.

Ask A Pelican

Yes, it’s time for the return of weekly installments of “Ask A Pelican”, the widely loved Q and A session with Hail Pelicus. This week’s question comes from Yakov Smirnoff of Odessa, Ukraine, who is in town for the Forgotten 80s Comedian Tour, asks:

“What a great audience! In Russia, pelican asks YOU! What a country! I love Pelicanland! So my question is this: I have noticed that many referees are trying to use comedy in their matches. Why are you trying to take my job? After divorce I need the money!”

Ha ha! What a great question from a great comedian. It is true that humor can often be used to develop empathy with the players and while not many referees are known for their comedic timing it is a useful tool to have in your kit bag. The referee considered the greatest current exponent of this technique is Welsh referee Nigel Owens, perpetrator of the “this is not soccer” talk with chatty players. After Nigel came out as gay and the rugby world collectively shrugged its shoulders (just ref a fair game, sir – we don’t care what you do after or who you do it with) he was dealing with wayward lineout throws by saying “I’m straighter than that one.” (See that clip here.)

Roman Poite recently came to fame during the England v Italy “no ruck” match with his great reply “I am a referee, not a coach” when the English captain asked how they should deal with the Italian tactics.

One of my personal favorites was a couple of years back when doing a CSUMB match the captain complained to me that the sideline fans were saying hurtful things to his players. My reply? “Haters gonna hate, hate, hate. Players gotta play, play, play. Just shake it off. Shake it off.” That got a laugh and we moved on from there.

The point being having a sense of humor and sharing it with players can not only be an effective management tool but can defuse potential flashpoints. This is a game and it is supposed to be fun. Talk to players, especially at stoppages like scrums. After all, if you can’t have fun with the front row then you have a serious humor deficiency and should have it looked at. Just remember to use small words.

Between Two Pelicans

Hail Pelicus, leading exponent of Fake News tried some Real Journalism in Las Vegas at the USA Sevens when we had a sit down with USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne. Last week saw Part 1 and Dan discussing USA Strategy 2020 and we continue with that topic this week, so get ready as we present Part 2 of our interview:

Hail Pelicus: Looking at the (USA Strategy 2020) model it, like every other model I have seen, looks to increase the youth base. Are they looking to direct financial resources more into the youth game and grass roots rugby?

Dan Payne: So there is a multi-prong effort . We are looking at regional development officers who will be focused on growing the youth and expanding the contact/non contact youth game – flag rugby – all those different initiatives. We are going to be communicating the message quite a bit to those who are completing their playing career that you need to please think about reffing, think about coaching youth, think about starting to build out the game at the 5-13 year old age group. So a lot of it is going to be messaging but we are going to be putting resources in to help facilitate the growth.

HP: Well that ties into my next question. In the 90s we had Dan Lyle, a superior athlete who picked up rugby in college and then went on to a famous professional career with Bath. Then we moved on a bit and the next great Captain America would be Todd Clever who came up through the high school system, started playing as a 14 year old and then moved on to college and then on to the professional game, becoming the first American to play Super Rugby. Our players are starting younger. So do you think our next talismanic figure will be someone who comes through the youth system or more of a crossover athlete in the Perry Baker mold?

DP: Well I think we will have to let time tell us that. We have our Perry Bakers, we have our Nate Ebners, we have out Liv Kelter. We have these men and women who are becoming such great ambassadors and representatives of the game that I would bet that it will continue to be a combination of both. We are going to have some crossover athletes who come to the game later but we also know that on the men’s side we have 28 players that are at NCAA D1 football programs right now that played High School rugby so we are tracking them. So we know that at 21, 22 if they don’t make it to the NFL, which the majority of them don’t, we can bring them back into the game.

And that is Part 2. Part 3 we will discuss money and finances and how Dan feels about RIM jobs and the relationship with USA Rugby.

New Kit

If you weren’t at the last Society Meeting then you missed out on a chance to get your kit, including the kit bags. The (astonishingly stylish) new kit will be distributed if I see you at some point in the next couple of weeks and at the Society meetings. I will do my best to find someone to distribute kit to those who can not make the meetings but feel free to reach out to me at hailpelicus@pelicanrefs.com if you plan to be in the San Jose area.

Please note that I am tired of storing this junk. If you don’t claim your stuff soon I may just dump it in the Guadalupe River while there is still enough water in it to cover up my misdeeds.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Starting off by cleaning up a few submissions that were emailed directly to me for various reasons. I missed posting them at the time but wanted to make sure the effort was appreciated. Keep them coming!)

When I moved from California, I thought I would miss February the most. While the weather may be cool, it was perfect for outdoor activities. Meanwhile, I knew February weather from NJ to be cold and gray.

So, when I saw I had a February 19th match, I prepared for the cold, not thinking to check the weather report until the day before. Match day was sunny and in the 60s and probably broke into the 70s at some point. While the wind made the kicking a little interesting and challenged the throw ins, it was a fantastic day for rugby.

It was a pre-season friendly played in 3 20-minute periods. While the Exiles are maturing after the club separated into 2 different teams, they had played some friendlies leading into the match. St. John’s boasted a larger squad than in the past, but this was their 1st time out on the pitch this year and they were definitely the smaller of the 2-sides. The first period was marred by very enthusiastic, but undisciplined play. Everyone wanted to take a quick tap, even if they weren’t in the same zip code as the mark and some early lineouts were plagued by confusion over who went where. St John’s benefited from the developing organization right from the opening kick. The Exiles misplayed it and St John’s collected the ball went through a couple of quick phases to score their opening try of the season. The rest of the period did surprise with good ball-handling and no scrums with knock-ons being infrequent. The Exiles excelled in the counter-ruck, stealing several balls, but employed a straight-forward, brute force approach. While they were able to gain ground, they weren’t able to string together multiple phases with their structure not holding after the 2nd phase. Never being able to take advantage of the St John’s defense bravely tackling, but committing significant numbers to bring down the larger Exiles. St John’s, for their part, had a better shape to their game, but weren’t able to physically match the Exiles. The opening period ended with St John’s up 5-0.

The second period was similar to the first, though some substitutions led to more ball-handling errors. The Exiles were able to punch over a try and won the 2nd period 7-0.

The third period was different as St John’s made whole-sale substitutions, with many of the players getting their 1st rugby playing experience. The Exiles, short on numbers, still had many of their starters on the pitch. Their fly-half gave the Cadets fits, cutting through and breaking the gain-line. The new players got sucked in, frequently leaving the wing unmarked and the Exiles collected 3 tries on the outside. The Cadets finally adjusted and stopped the bleeding, but the Exile were finally able to punch a try through the middle.

I was reassigned to these games at the last minute and ended up with two enjoyable games on a beautiful, sunny day.

The JV game was at 12.15pm and the players were warming up and ready. Peninsula Green were noticeably bigger than their opponents and ran hard and straight. McClatchey stuck to their task and tackled bravely but were continually scrambling.

The first half ended with a 38-5 lead for Pen Green ( 6 tries to 1) and the second half continued in the same vein with another 6 tries for Pen Green to 2 for McClatchey and a final score of 75 – 17.

The Varsity B side game followed and the physical disparities were reduced but Pen Green still had a size advantage but were less organized and less disciplined. Pen Green lost a player to a red card (dangerous tackle) at 12 minutes and this limited them. Half time saw McClatchey ahead 20 – 12; they couldn’t buy a conversion for their 4 tries.

Pen Green fought back in the second half, scoring two converted tries to take the lead at 26-20 before McClatchey re-awakened themselves to close the scoring with two converted tries of their own for a final in their favour of 34 – 26.

Date: 03/17/2017
Elsie Allen 42 – Dublin 27
Referee: Bertolone, Cary

Friday night game at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa, on St. Patty’s day/night. Kick off at 7:30 PM, with Mike Gadau announcing the game, the game was very even with the teams taking turns scoring tries and Dublin scoring the last one for a 17-10 lead at the half. In the second half, Elsie outscored Dublin 5 tries to 2 and won going away, 42-27. Good game to ref with some some fast kids out there.

A high level high school match played on Bonney field gave both teams a chance to play rugby on the same pitch as internationals. Both teams were disciplined but GB came back late to score a try at 80′. It just wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit run up by Danville

A short-handed Sacramento State squad of 17 were overpowered by Cal Poly on a beautiful spring day in San Luis Obispo. The Hornets did a great job of legally disrupting the Cal Poly rolling maul, but had no answer in the scrum. With a surfeit of front foot ball, Cal Poly scored thirteen tries in a dominant performance.

It was a nice 90 minute drive to Colusa County. The last time I went to Colusa was when I played for Humboldt State in the 80’s. While overcast, it did not rain. The field was a bit small, but in ok shape. The Amazons only had 11 players so they forfeited. A friendly game of 10’s was played. After the game the Colusa team hosted a nice lunch. Beer, beef, salad and garlic bread. Overall it was a nice experience.

Date: 03/18/2017
Fresno 46 – San Jose 14
Referee: Pescetti, David

Hot, dry, and windless day down in Fresno. It was a great day,

This match started off tight. Fresno scoring 8 minutes into the match, and 5 minutes later SJ taking a two point lead with a converted try. It stayed that way for 15 minutes, With 12 minutes left in the half Fresno began its onslaught. Scoring 4 times before the halftime whistle sounded.

Fresno tacked on three more tries in the second half. But SJ scored once more again with 27 minutes remaining, seemed to be their lucky number.

Date: 03/18/2017
Fresno State 92 – SJSU 0
Referee: Jury, Jeff

It was a long, hot (about 90’f) day for San Jose State in Fresno. The Bulldogs spread the field then just sliced and diced. The Spartans were game and got close, but in the end, it was for not. CSUF 92 SJSU 0.
The second game of 10s was closer with a few Bulldogs beefing up the vistors. CSUF B 32 SJSU 31.

Date: 03/18/2017
Google 107 – South Valley 17
Referee: Bretz, William

SV played game with one man short at 14 players.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: I see that young Liam follows in his daddy’s footsteps when it comes to match reporting. It is nice to see skills passed on from father to son like that. )

What can you say about a scoreline like that? Well, it actually was closer than the score indicates as SFGG had structure and solid phase play, but the Gladiatrix are just lethal, especially in the open field. Their combination of speed and power is very difficult to stop once they break the line and they break the line often. SFGG battled the entire game but had no answer to their opponent.

After a try fest for the A side Life West’s B side took on the newly formed Black Roses from Santa Rosa. This is a team with some seriously good rugby athletes combined with a spate of brand new players and it showed. There was some good play both ways as Life West continued its domination of Nor Cal women’s rugby, running out to a 48-0 half time lead. The Black Roses never gave up and were rewarded for their efforts in the 2nd half as they actually outscored the Gladiatrix 26-19. The Roses’ scrum half was especially active, starting the scoring with a brilliant solo effort off the base of the scrum, going 50 meters and displaying a perfect in and out sidestep to beat the covering fullback. Well done to all.

This was venued at CSUMB’s new field (at least new to me; it has been a while). And while not a close game, it was well played.

I last had CSMB several years ago. They were a cheerful bunch, but not very good. This gang is an marked upgrade. While offensively unorganized, their tackling was fierce; perhaps the best I have seen this year. At the half the score was 8-17.

But Maritime is going to the playoffs for a reason. Forward play stopped? No problem. Crashing centers stopped? No problem. In the second half they swung it out to the wing with frequency. Four tries in the corner, and Bob is your uncle.

Date: 03/18/2017
Mendocino 55 – Reno 14
Referee: Bernstein, Bruce

Give Reno a lot of credit for driving 5 hours each way with 13 players, refusing to forfeit & accept 2 or more players to even up the sides–they gave it hell & we’re in the match until the last 10 minutes when Mendo’s speed started equally its superior size & #’s.
Also their 23 players put on another great party featuring Red Tail Ale & pulled pork sliders.
Both teams at full strength should make an impact in their playoff matches.
Also real nice soft, plush field with a nice crowd & perfect 68 degree Nor Cal sunny day; plus pretty drive!

Both teams were undefeated, Sacramento going from Div. 1 down to Div 2 and Napa moving up from Div.3 to Division 2. Both teams were loaded with talent. We were in Napa at Kennedy Park, but on the smallest field.. only 50 meters wide, etc. It was a battle with the Blackhawks seemingly out playing Napa. but making a lot of knock-ons and penalties. Napa kicked a penalty kick and scored two tries before Sacramento could get on the board with a try of their own. Napa nailed one more penalty kick before the half and had the lead 18-7. In the second half, Napa picked up 3 more points, leading 21-7. Sacramento finally cleaned it up a little and scored two tries. making it close at 21-19. Napa scored another penalty kick at the 32 minute mark. Sacramento spent the next 5 minutes knocking on the door, with Napa making tackle after tackle. Finally, on the 37th minute of the second half, they scored a converted try to take the lead 26-24. Napa, still not done, advanced the ball to about the 20 meter line and with another penalty against Sac, had a very good chance to win the game with 30 seconds left. Their previous kicker had been subbed out and Elkin’s kick went wide, the game was over and the Blackhawks went crazy with joy, silencing the large Napa crowd and making me very unpopular as I got my gear and left. A lot of talking from the Sac team mandated more than one discussion, but I worked it out for the most part, even having to replace the touch judge at the half.

I had arrived a tad later than I would prefer and slightly over-hyped on coffee. I briefly discussed with Mike what my goals were for the match and got hooked up to my first radio experience, weeee! SJ had 11 girls so they forfeited and the All Blues loaned them a few to give them 14, since they still needed one for a sub. The 80 minute game went well overall aside from the All Blues scoring many, many tries. The discipline from the ABs was lacking as I had to hand out my first yellow to my old team. Womp womp…pretty confident those girls low key hated me after the match even though they won by 89 points. Repeated and accumulated infringements around the breakdown and offsides were the name of the game, of which I obviously was expecting, seeing that I was a recent co-perpetrator of said violations and then some recently myself with these girls. Post match I got good feedback from Mike overall, and my positioning improved greatly, in addition to increasing my comfort of doing the referee thing around the park.

Date: 03/18/2017
SFSU 31 – UNR 38
Referee: McDougall, Grant

No report received

Date: 03/18/2017
Shasta 0 – Chico 96
Referee: Godfrey, Mark

No report received

Date: 03/18/2017
Silicon Valley 23 – Diablo 34
Referee: Bretz, Paul

Fun game on a postage-stamp sized field at Independence High school. Silicon Valley scored first and controlled the lead going into the 1st half intermission. That lead extended in the second half with a penalty try as a result of tackling the kicker late. However, Diablo maintained their composure and were able to exploit gaps on the edges of the exterior defense. @ 70 minutes Diablo scored to make it a one point game, 22-23 and continued to get the ball wide, scoring 2 more trys late to secure the win.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: How is it possible to have a postage stamp sized field at Independence High School? There is a massive amount of space out there – more than enough for 2 fields plus warmup areas. You could easily fit in 3 fields there. )

Date: 03/18/2017
St. Mary’s College B 95 – American River College 17
Referee: Stockton, Andrew

For such a blowout, this was a well contested match. St. Mary’s had a massive advantage in the scrum, and won possession off of the scrum the vast majority of the time, despite who had the put in. They kicked off the scoring 2 minutes into the first half and tallied 45 before ARC got on the board with 6 minutes left in the first half. St. Mary’s scored 3 more times in quick succession and ended the half 66-5. I pulled both captains aside at half and told them that I was unhappy with the tackling toward the end of the first half. I told both teams to clean it up or there would be consequences. The half began and after one high tackle, I pulled both captains aside and told them the next tackle would be a yellow card. At 54 minutes, #20 on ARC came over the back of a St. Mary’s player and landed on his neck. I immediately blew for a penalty and gave the offending player a yellow card. The rest of the match was incident free, and St. Mary’s tacked on 29 more points while ARC added 12.

I was asked to play a 20 minute “garbage period” to give some of the ARC players who didn’t make it into the first match some playing time. Before the game started, I asked both captains if they would like to move to uncontested scrums because of the overwhelming advantage St. Mary’s had. They both agreed. I then reminded them, and cautioned them, that I had already sent a player off for a high tackle and that I was not going to stand for any more. I told them they would get a single warning and then I would eject players from the game for repeated offenses and for playing dangerously. Less than 2 minutes into the game, there was a high tackle from ARC and I brought both captains over and reminded them that the next tackle would be an ejection. At 8 minutes in, ARC made another high tackle, and I ejected the offending player. 10 minutes later, St. Mary’s committed the same offense, with an identical tackle, and I ejected him as well for dangerous play and a repeated offense. Garbage time ended 15 to 5 for St. Mary’s.

UCSC built a 15-0 lead by halftime with three unconverted tries.
Stanford stormed back briefly taking the lead at 17-15.
UCSC scored a fourth, unconverted try to wrestle victory from the clutches of defeat.

I still need a lot of work. I could probably use a day reviewing hand signals alone. On the positive note, i did keep up with the action which was a feat considering I’m a prop and these were college kids. I noticed I don’t see all penalties or infractions. I would see the aftermath and know something occurred, but did not blow the whistle. I explained as much to the captains. It would have helped having line judges. I’m going to need to purchase some flags. I’m going to need to review the offense infraction vs. penalty list again too. I’ll plan on watching games on tv and brushing up.

Date: 03/18/2017
Vacaville 24 – Berkeley 19
Referee: Wood, Scott

No whistle for first five minutes. Three penalties and one scrum in first 20 minutes. Berkeley scored first. HT Berkeley ahead 7-5. In the second half, Vacaville scored three unanswered tries. With under five minutes remaining in the match, Berkeley scored a converted try. Restart at 77th minute. Vacaville loses a player to the sin bin. Berkeley scores a try, full time sounds as kicker is setting the ball for the conversion. Valiant effort by both teams. Another exciting match. Social with the Mooses.

It was a great day to be at Wilder Fields, where the sun burned through the fog just as this match kicked off at 1345. The field below us must have had 200 kids doing various youth rugby things, which was also great to see.

Mother Lode had the upper hand in this match, and the score is a fair reflection of that. In the first half, Mother Lode scored first (9′) and got 2 more tries (18′ and 36′ running time), converting all three, whereas Lamorinda got only one try at 34′ (converted) for a halftime score of 21-7 to the visitors.

Lamorinda kicked off to start the second half, and their #7 was sent off for a dangerous tackle as that kickoff returned to earth. Mother Lode soon took advantage of the missing Lamo player by scoring another converted try 4′ into the half. At 13′, Lamorinda lost a backline player to the sin bin for a late charge on a kicker. Mother Lode again quickly capitalized on their 15-13 advantage with 2 more tries at 15′ (converted) and 18′ (unconverted), effectively putting the game out of reach at 40-7. To their credit, Lamorinda didn’t give up, and managed to stop any further Mother Lode scoring while 2 players down. After their yellow card expired, they scored the last 2 tries of the match at 24′ (converted) and 31′ (unconverted) to bring it to 40-19, which is respectable given that they went half the match missing one player.

Much to my surprise, when I arrived I was told we were going to play 10s. I had to brush out the old law book to refresh myself on the variations, But enough about me.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: There is never enough about the referee. That is what the people pay for! )

SJ started off by scoring the first try of the match and was able to convert. There was a stalemate for the next 10 minutes. When the stalemate broke down Monterey burst through for 3 tries, only converting once. At the half Monterey Bay lead 17 to SJSU 7. The second half began much like the ending of the 1st, Monterey put up two more tries but wasnt able to convert any. Gassed Monterey’s defense became porous. SJ took advantage with 6 minutes to go, but they missed a crucial conversion. With 5 minutes to go down 15 it looked out of reach. They did not let that score lessen their determination. with 2 minutes to go they scored again, and this time converted. In the last seconds of the game, SJ punched the ball through one last time and converted. Unfortunately for them the bell tolled and the match ended with the momentum in their favor, but a point short after 40 minutes.

They decided to play a game of 7s to settle things. San Jose left too much out on the pitch after the 10, and Monterey took the 7s match 15 – 0.

Overall an enjoyable, rare, Sunday of rugby.

This Week’s Photo

Pelicus Byrnest hamming it up with Santa Rosa High School boys rugby after a recent match.

The World Sevens Series moved up to Canada last week and, because of the rabid moose infestation, was played indoors. The USA looked even stronger than their 3rd place performance last week as they cruised through the Day 1 pool with comfortable victories over Japan, France and Australia, recording a +88 point differential. The clinical evisceration of Australia was especially impressive as we took apart a very talented team with ease. Hopes were high as we headed into Day 2 with a quarterfinal against Argentina (again). Déjà vu all over again as the US didn’t play particularly well but managed a narrow victory over the South Americans. That set up a Cup Seminfinal against Series Leaders South Africa (again). Déjà déjà vu… or something like that. The US would come into this game with confidence knowing how close they came to beating the Blitzbokke in Las Vegas but would have to do it without their talismanic bruiser Danny Barrett, who was serving a suspension for a head high tackle in the Argentina match. Will Ben Pinkleman step up and take over the Barrett role? Will Folau Niua be able to orchestrate an upset over their bogey team? Will Madison Hughes finally be able to eat at the adult’s table? The answers to those questions are, in order, yes, no, and maybe next year, little guy.

Pinkleman was huge. South Africa is possibly the only team on the circuit that has the speed to contain Perry Baker so he was a non factor in this match. The hard work done by Pinkleman, Duratolo and the rest of the Eagles led to an early lead and when the inevitable South African comeback occurred kept them in the game until the final whistle. Down by 4, we had possession and were attacking scant meters from the try line when we tried one too many pick and go’s and were held up in goal. This is how close we are to the top echelon on 7s rugby: for two tournaments in a row we were beaten by the #1 team on a critical defensive play at full time. Last week we stole the lineout but were then pushed off the ensuing ruck. This week we crossed the try line but were held up in goal. Agonizingly close to the finals.

I would like to turn that around now to talk about what makes a champion. South Africa are pulling away with the points race having won 4 tournaments already and, even though they lost to England in the finals of this tournament, are playing inspired rugby and it would take a monumental collapse for them not to take the Series title this year. One of the hallmarks of a championship team is that they defend and make plays when they need to and that was never more apparent than in the last two semifinals against the US. Twice the US were down by less than a try and had possession in a very dangerous position with no time left and both times South Africa won the all important turnover to clinch the game. This is what champions do. The mental strength to know that you are never beaten translating to the desire and effort to ensure that you are never beaten is a rare and wonderful thing. In English soccer they used to talk about Manchester United and “Fergie Time”, referring to Sir Alex Ferguson and Man U’s seemingly magical ability to pull victory from the jaws of defeat with late goals. How many times have the All Blacks won games they should have lost with late scores or defensive stands? South Africa has the look now of an all time great squad and this mental strength at the end of games and tournaments is a big part of it.

Let Me Tell You About My Tight Pants

World Rugby made a rather controversial decision last week to allow the men to wear tights while playing in Vancouver as a “one time exemption”. The official reason this was done was for player welfare as the burns and abrasions from two straight tournaments on artificial grass were considered a health hazard. However you feel about this decision there is no doubt that this has opened Pandora’s Box. Online discussion forums are already awash with “why can’t we wear tights all the time?” posts and the subsequent arguments. My guess is that WR will push back hard on any other exemptions or Law changes. The original Law allowing women to wear tights (and head scarves) were intended for religious reasons, but since it was quickly apparent that referees couldn’t ask a player to prove their religion it was expanded to include all women. There is no religious reasoning for men wearing tights so that argument won’t fly. WR is a very conservative body at times and won’t budge on this for a while, in my opinion.

That being said, we here at Hail Peilcus were able to get a camera into the meeting where this was discussed and it was intense, to say the least. The women, who have been dealing with this issue for a few years, were able to dominate the conversation at the end.

You can see the meeting below. It is worth it to see the inner workings of rugby at… er… work.

The Best Mentors A Girl Could Have

Last weekend saw a girls high school and middle school tournament that was refereed by an all female crew. At least that is the rumor. I have no reports of this happening, really, in spite of the promises of prominent Pelicans to do so. Several young girls had their first taste of refereeing with some pretty hefty assistance, having National Panel Besties as their ARs. Here is a picture of Lee Berard and Leah Bryant at the tournament.

Between Two Pelicans

Hail Pelicus, well on its way to a whole truckload of journalism prizes, scored yet another coup in Las Vegas at the USA 7s. You will recall last fall when our legendary segment Between Two Pelicans garnered the first exclusive interview with newly promoted USA 7s Tournament Director Jon Hinkin. Well, we have followed it up with a sit down with USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne. Sit back and relax as we present Part 1 of our interview:

Hail Pelicus: We are here with USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne for another edition of Between Two Pelicans. Hello Dan and thank you for taking the time to speak with us.

Dan Payne: Sure. It is an honor.

HP: Quite. Let’s start off with the leadership in US rugby, not just USA Rugby itself but across the country. It has turned into an OMBACtorship with yourself as CEO, Brian Vizard in charge of the US Rugby Foundation and Jon Hinkin running the USA 7s after taking over from Dan Lyle. What do you think your constituents think about that?

DP: Well I think that you may be one of the first to make that connection. I think it is great because Jon and Viz are very good friends of mine but many people forget that the roots of my rugby started in New York while it flourished in Southern California.

HP: In Northern California, especially in the Referee Society we prefer a more Seahawkian model with Paul Bretz as the President, Pete Smith as the scheduler and myself running the media so we find that setup to be much more intelligent, subtle and nuanced.

DP: Yea, yea. Well that’s all up for debate.

HP: Moving on. USA Stategy 2020. I read that and my first impression was that it read like US Soccer’s infamous “We will win the World Cup by 2010” plan, so I have some questions regarding that. To start, who is the Rugby Business Executives Association? Is this a Dan Payne thing? Something started under Nigel Melville? Or is this an independent group that stepped up?

DP: So the Rugby Business Executives Association is championed by George Henderson. George was the lead consultant that did a lot of the information accumulation throughout the constituency in the development of this Strategy 2020. As they were going through the process one of the things that came up to him was that there are so many people throughout our rugby community that are excellent businessmen, businesswomen, that have a skill that might be beneficial to the organization but we haven’t had a way to harness them. We haven’t had a way to even identify and allow those people to collaborate. This kind of morphed out of George doing all of his work and the brainstorm of how do we utilize our best asset which is our people.

HP: This touches on what I have long considered one of the great paradoxes of US Rugby in that, especially our generation and the previous ones, most people picked up rugby in college. So the majority of older rugby players are college educated and many have demonstrated competence in business but most rugby clubs are run horribly. There are a few shining examples but most clubs are run day to day, week to week, with no vision. If you have enough money to cover fields for the next 2 months you are in a good spot.

DP: Right.

HP: Are you trying to harness that particular skill?

DP: Yes. That would be accurate.

And there you have it. Part 1 of our interview that touched on the USA Strategy 2020 for building our game as well as the obvious superiority of a San Jose Seahawk based leadership over a San Diego OMBAC based leadership. Part 2 will be presented next week.

If you weren’t at the last Society Meeting then you missed out on a chance to get your kit, including the kit bags. The (astonishingly stylish) new kit will be distributed if I see you at some point in the next couple of weeks and at the Society meetings. I will do my best to find someone to distribute kit to those who can not make the meetings but feel free to reach out to me at hailpelicus@pelicanrefs.com if you plan to be in the San Jose area.

Please note that I am tired of storing this junk. If you don’t claim your stuff soon I may just dump it in the Guadalupe River while there is still enough water in it to cover up my misdeeds.

Marin began the match with stout defense and good running lines. CKM managed a converted try early but for the next 15 minutes the game see-sawed with no team breaking the try line. Then CKM started building phases and recognizing the overlap. From there it turned into a track meet. CKM really move the ball well. They are a team to be watched. Marin played well technically in the heat, but they were just outmatched.

Date: 03/11/2017
Colusa 49 – Central Coast 7
Referee: Sandhill, Peter

It seemed like the first day of spring, with a very warm sun and a grassy field in Colusa. Central Coast drove from Santa Cruz and Monterey surrounds, around four hours each way. Unfortunately, they barely had a full team and the game started with uncontested scrums.

Colusa were four tries up at the half. In the second, they scored five more.
Both teams played hard and were really well spirited. Colusa were disciplined and athletic. Central Coast stayed on them and fought hard with some spirited runs on several occasions. It was hard not to go to the social afterwards.

Interestingly, Central Coast asked beforehand about how I saw them not contesting after a tackle (tackle only). They didn’t contest many rucks and, like Italy against England, had several players amongst the Colusa backs, moving around. After they adapted, Colusa were creative in response. It was clear they had thought about it – pick & go.

Thanks Pelicans for the interesting and informative coaching to referees about the ruck and tackle only situations.

Date: 03/11/2017
Colusa Women 0 – All Blues 81
Referee: Heil, Duane

Beautiful day for a drive to the valley. Listened to Jim Jefferies on the trip out to get myself in a happy place…worked.
Upon arrival, Colusa was setting up the field. I was about 45 min early, so I suited up and walked the pitch. What I found in the school yard grass was appalling. I picked about 6 big hand fulls of trash, part of which included a huge piece of 1/4” steel bar about 16” long…what the ****?
I brought it to the attention of the men’s team guys who were hanging out, but they really could care less…
Right before the woman’s team started, I showed the women’s team pres the collection from the field, and she was at least concerned….

OK, on to the game: Colusa, the home team, only had 7 or their own players, but lucky for them, Berkeley brought 22 players. So everyone played.
The game was uneventful save for a score approx every 5 minutes. Couple of high tackles, offsides, etc.

One of the finest high school games I’ve had the privilege to officiate. Both teams were well coached. Danville moved out to a 17 – 0 halftime lead thanks to their back play. Solano utilized their forwards with runs off of the breakdown.

Date: 03/11/2017
Fresno 38 – Silicon Valley 31
Referee: Tiatia, Nome

No report received

Date: 03/11/2017
Google 70 – SF Fog 0
Referee: Santiago, Roberto

Another Saturday Night Lights game in Mountain View with a crisp but pleasant game time temperature around 55. This game went about how you’d expect from teams at opposite ends of the standings. The Fog look to be going through a bit of a rebuild with a mix of a few vets and a binder full of new players. Google showed cohesion and familiarity as a squad. They has a good mix of athleticism and experience to go with a deep bench. There was no drop off in play when the subs came in over the course of the second half. Google has gotten better around the breakdown and play with more overall discipline than they did when I saw them early in the season.

On the other side, the Fog looked to be a bit undersized, especially in the forwards. This disparity showed up in open play and at the breakdown, but SF dominated the scrums with great technique. The Fog #2 was able to get quick hooks, which negated Google’s size advantage. The Fog players also deserve a nod for their courage and approach to the game. Despite facing size mismatches in one-on-one situations Fog defenders overwhelmingly chose to breakdown, stick their nose in, and attempt to make the play. You don’t always see that determination from a team getting blown out late in the game, but the Fog played just as hard at 79:00 as they did at 02:00.

Saturday was a gorgeous day out in Carmichael. The sun was shining, the field was dry, and it was about 78 degrees. Perfect conditions for a match. From the very beginning of the match, it was apparent that Jesuit was the better team. Jesuit’s fast paced style of play mixed in with a wonderful kicking game I have not seen in a high school match ever, kept them in control of the match from start to finish. Because of the speed and constant pressure from Jesuit, Lamorinda was in a state of disarray making many bad or arrant passes, including a few that were wildly thrown without looking, which Jesuit capitalized on. However, despite the lopsided score, the boys never gave up, and it was very apparent that they were still enjoying themselves; a quality that I always admire in a team.

What a beautiful day and a Saturday…so it must be a rugby day. Life West Woman were hosting the San Jose Seahawks. The Seahawks have some injuries and could only supply 13 players. So they forfeited, and then played a 40 minute game, which Life dominated in every way. Scoring 8 tries.
The players then broke into three teams of 10’s and played 40 minutes rotating amongst the three. All in good spirits and sportsmanship.
Life West looks like they have the players to possibly go very deep in the playoffs. But they need some competitive games to get ready.

Date: 03/11/2017
Marin 45 – Reno 7
Referee: Labozzetta, Chris

Reno was shorthanded for this match, but still put in a valiant effort. However, Marin carried the day with strong tackling and offensive attack.

South Valley are struggling for playing numbers and while they have some skillful players, they lack pace. The Harlots had numbers at home (although several arrived late and came on at half time).

The first replacement that the Harlots used was a young, strong and fast center (late arrival). His first run saw him break a tackle but during the contact he struck the defender with his elbow and went off for 10 minutes.

Harlots scored four tries in the first half but couldn’t kick the conversions while South Valley stayed in the hunt with two converted tries for a 20-14 HT score.

At half time the Harlots brought on 5 replacements and the increase in energy was too much for South Valley. The Harlots used their last replacement and South Valley used their only replacement but the game became a parade with Harlots running in 8 second half tries (5 converted) to a single unconverted try for South Valley.

On a nice, warm, and humid day in Santa Rosa, featuring the division’s #4 and #5 sides playing, EPA Razorbacks got an away victory. The scoreline somewhat flattered them, however, with Santa Rosa coming away with no points from two scrum put-ins on their opponents’ 5m line, and having the ball knocked out of the hands of one of their players just before he could ground it for a try. The last play of the match was also an EPA interception, returned for a converted try.

EPA got the first try 2 minutes into the game, converting it for a 7-point lead. Santa Rosa responded by moving the ball around well, and at 16′ one of their wingers got around the last defender on the right and into the in-goal area. He got about 2 steps further towards the center of the pitch before getting collared by EPA’s scrum-half, resulting in a penalty try and a yellow card. Note that penalty tries now require no conversion attempt – they’re an automatic 7 points. At 22′ Santa Rosa kicked a penalty goal to take a 10-7 lead, followed by another at 33′ to go up 13-7. Two minutes later, the EPA captain went to the bin for another high tackle. The Razorbacks kicked things up a gear and got their second try at 37′ to pull within a point, and then converted it to take the lead into halftime, at 14-13.

Similar to the first half, EPA scored another try at 42′ to extend their lead to 19-13, still playing with 14 men. Santa Rosa’s outside center picked up a yellow card at 45′ for another poorly-executed tackle, though their defense held firm while they were missing him. EPA then added two further converted tries at 19′ and 25′ to pull comfortably ahead at 33-13. The character of the match didn’t change too much with the addition of most of Santa Rosa’s bench and a handful of EPA replacements. At 77′, Santa Rosa got another try, though they were unable to convert it. Their tails were up, and they spent the rest of the match looking for a way through EPA’s defense, with lots of good attacks. Ultimately, a long pass was picked off by the EPA captain to end the match with their last converted try under the posts.

Despite the 3 yellow cards, this match was played in good spirits and the players all seemed to enjoy it. I certainly did. Thanks to everyone involved!

Date: 03/11/2017
SFGG 29 – Olympic Club 5
Referee: Akroyd, Phil

SFGG were always in the lead but O Club never made it easy for them. Golden Gate could also have cut their penalty count in half if they had clear understanding of the tackle law, but they were too good to let that slow them down too much.

Some good rugby played overall but it seems like SFGG have another couple of gears to go up when they need them.

The weather was nice and sunny. A beautiful day for rugby. SFGG scored first and Amazons scored about two minutes later. However, that was all the scoring for the Amazons till the last play of the game. SFGG controlled the loose play. Ruck and drive; excellent phase play. Eventually, the backs would get a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1. The two SFGG wings were fast but did not out run their support. The half time score was SFGG 45 {7 tries, 5 conversions} : Amazons 7 {1 try, 1 conversion}. The second half SFGG brought in their players that need more experience, but the game plan was the same {2 tries, 1 conversion}. The Amazons forwards did punch it in on the last play of the game {1 try, no conversion}. Final score SFGG 57 : Amazons 12.

It was a beautiful morning for rugby. Sac State went in as the underdog, but played stout for the first quarter not allowing a St. Mary’s score until the 24:00 minute mark. The Gaels managed to score three more tries over the next twelve minutes, converting three two of them. Sacramento scored right at 40:00 to make it St Mary’s 26 – 5 Sac State. Sac came out strong again in the second half, holding St. Mary’s off for the first fourteen minutes. St. Mary’s finally broke through for another try and a 31-5 lead. Sac did their best to make a game of it by scoring just two minutes later, but that would be the final tally of the day. In all, St. Mary’s played to the level you would expect, while a young Sacramento team showed promise for the next few years.

A beautiful sunny and warm morning in Stanford for an 11am kickoff with the Steuber Field in magnificent condition following the rainy weather!!

Two very committed teams put in significant effort from the start and maintained it throughout the game.

Stanford lost one of their 2nd row forwards with a knee injury in the first minute of the game.

For the majority of the first half Davis dominated territory and generally maintained longer multi-phased periods with their middle field putting Stanford under constant pressure. This pressure was converted into tries on 5, 13, 16 and 20 minutes with 3 conversions leaving the score at 0-26.

At this stage Stanford started to gain some consistent territory but strong defense created turnovers or forced knock-ons in contact allowing Davis to exit their half.

On 3 occasions the turnovers looked like leading to break-out scores for Davis but some excellent commitment to not give up the chase stopped 2 of these including one excellent tackle over the line dislodging the ball for a turnover knock on. On 34 minutes one of these breakouts did lead to a score after some excellent handling and offloads. Converted.

Stanford finished the half on attack with first a try being overruled for a foot in touch with a minute remaining. Stanford then won the turnover lineout and after a few re-cycles were held up in-goal under the posts to be denied a first half score. 0-33 at the half.

Davis obviously refocused at the break as they came out all guns blazing and dominated the opening 10 minutes showing excellent speed from right wing and fullback. Tries on 2, 6 and 9 minutes (1 conversion) brought the score at 50 minutes to 0-50.

With some home vocal support Stanford remained competitive and play for the next 15 minutes was mainly played between the 22’s with some enterprising play getting little reward from either defense. The heat and substitutions disrupted continuity a little from mid-way through the half.

On 34 mins Davis again broke wide out to score an unconverted try for a 0-55 lead.

At this point, Stanford put everything into the last 5 minutes most of which was played in the Davis 22. With lots of vocal support they finally crossed the line with the last play of the day. The conversion was missed however.

EDITOR’S NOTE: At the annual NCRRS Awards Dinner we hand out, amongst others, the Scriptorus award for the referee who has the best, most interesting and thoughtful write-ups. This year Andrew Bailey is in contention for the Anti-Scriptorus award.

Date: 03/11/2017
UNR 14 – UC Davis 41
Referee: Ulibarri, Phillip

Solid passing skills and commitment under beautiful Spring skies took Davis ahead in the first stanza and they never looked threatened.

Date: 03/11/2017
UOP 5 – Cal Maritime 61
Referee: Wood, Scott

One replacement bus driver, one wrong turn, one train delay. All things that can ruin a game plan. However, CMA was up for the task of a 30-minute warm-up. The temperature was a record high for 2017 in Stockton. Fortunately, CMA’s kickers saw their water bottle often enough to stave off potential heat stress.

Beautiful day in SF made this an enjoyable encounter between two 5-1 teams (both have only lost to Cal Maritime). Santa Rosa Junior College came out strong and scored good tries in both halves. USF kept in the game but could not match the power and skilled of the well coached SRJC side. As we were getting ready for a scrum in the second half the USF open side flanker stepped between the front rows and gently rubbed the portly tummy of the SRJC hooker and promptly stepped back. Strange behavior but no reason for a penalty :).

It was a beautiful evening in Berkeley and my first visit to the famous Witter Field. It was the annual showdown between Stanford and Cal. Unfortunately, Stanford showed up with 14 players (apparently, the others missed the bus). I was hoping the game would end with 14 players; however, two injuries in the second half dashed those hopes. The good news is that it took Cal 10 minutes to score in the second half and Stanford had a shot at putting up 3 points. That was not to be, as the final score was 120-0. At least Stanford gave it the old college try!

This Week’s Photo

I read the news today, oh boy! In the press box after the Between Two Pelicans interview with Dan Payne.

This week’s Hail Pelicus is a bit on the tardy side but in my defense, 3 days in Vegas can often last a week. Looking back on the USA 7s all I can say is what a weekend it was! There was great rugby all around, especially on Sunday. Starting with the USA’s quarterfinal against Argentina and going all the way to the final, what I witnessed was some of the best rugby I have ever seen. Every game seemed to balance on a knife edge and when any team opened up a big lead the opposition came storming back – often to win (see: USA v Argentina and USA v South Africa). Our semifinal loss on Sunday was particularly torturous theater as we jumped out to a deserved early lead (by actually using the wind instead of being baffled by it as we did last year) and when South Africa came back we battled back and forth exchanging tries and the lead until the final seconds with the BlitzBokke throwing in a lineout 5m from their own goal. We had to steal the lineout or the game was over – end of story – and as the ball came in Danny Barrett rose with perfect timing and STOLE THE LINEOUT! HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY! South Africa is not the championship side they are without their own never give up qualities so they hit the ensuing ruck with vigor and pushed us over the ball to resecure it and, with a simple kick, end the game. Wow. Emotions flowed from elation to despair over the course of the game and even more so in those final seconds as we stole a sure victory from South Africa and then they stole it right back. After all, who didn’t believe that we would have scored from that position had we retained the ball?

We won the lineout but lost the ruck – the knife edge of sport that made this tournament so compelling.

It is a truism in rugby that any time you can beat New Zealand you have done a great thing and the USA did just that in the 3rd place game with (yet another) come from behind victory being settled in the final seconds. Anyone who watched that spectacle and wasn’t thrilled, excited and enthused probably is already clinically dead but just doesn’t know it yet. With yet another record crowd (80,691) filling Sam Boyd stadium over the three days of the tournament the USA 7s has firmly established itself as the clear #2 stop on the World Sevens Series, trailing only The Grand Daddy Of Them All, the Rose Bowl. Sorry, I meant The Grand Daddy Of Them All, the Hong Kong 7s. The size of the stadium in Hong Kong combined with the decades of tradition means that the title of Best Attended World Sevens Stop will remain out of reach unless something stupid and unlikely happens, such as an NFL team run by an incompetent and increasingly desperate owner tries to build a stadium in Las Vegas for the 2 year boost it would give his attendance numbers before they plummet.

But that would never happen.

Pelicans Dominant In Vegas

Not only did our own Danny Barrett (Cal) make the Dream Team (again) with his usual bruising yet subtle performance but Folau Niua (EPA) had a monster tournament and can feel slighted not to have also made the Dream Team. With his signature ‘fro flapping in the wind he was easily identifiable on the pitch and essentially ran the team with his ball handling and decision making, mixing in some tries for good measure. The dummy against South Africa was a perfect example as the defense had to respect his passing and didn’t commit in case he found a runner as soon as they broke the defensive line. Once he showed the ball and they bought it he gratefully waltzed through the ensuing gap to score under the posts. All of that was set up by his previous work throughout this and other tournaments and it is a weapon now honed to perfection.

Make no mistake, Madison Hughes is deservedly our captain, but Folau Niua runs the team.

What can I say about Danny Barrett that hasn’t already been said before? Just this: he is more than a bruising runner and defensive enforcer but is a complete rugby player. The ball skills and work rate have always been there and are assumed at this level but what really stands out now is at only 6’ 2” he has become a surprisingly effecting lineout option on offense and, even more surprisingly, a consistent stealer of the opposition’s lineouts. The end of our South African semifinal was just the latest case in point, but he was all over the opposition all weekend. The timing of his jump is perfect and the supporters get him up and in the ball’s path quickly. Once he has his hands on the ball his strength takes over and he just rips the ball to his side. This is yet another reason why Danny is a consistent Dream Teamer.

The USA 7s Women also had a strong showing with a fantastic win over Fiji and a tight loss to eventual champs New Zealand in the semis to finish 4th. Kelly Griffin, Bulou Mataitoga and Joanne Fa’avesi all come from Pelicanland (how many local unions regularly contribute ¼ or more of the national teams?) and especially dominant was the Sacramento Amazon’s Joanne Fa’avesi who seemed to be everywhere on the pitch.

It wasn’t just the players that represented Pelicanland well but our own referee society, The Greatest Referee Society On The Planet, provided Phil Akroyd and Lee Bryant as ARs for the event and they seemed to be chosen for some of the top matches involving Fiji, New Zealand, England and South Africa – the top sides not named “USA” which I assume they are ineligible for. Also representing were Steve Fenaroli as well as John Coppinger, the Hardest Working Man on the Judiciary Committee (not!). Mr Coppinger spend the entire weekend drinking fruity rum drinks with his feet up in the press box knowing that nobody had been red carded all weekend… until one was finally given with 3 seconds left in the final ruining his perfect vacation and requiring him to do some work after all.

And finally, Pelicanland was well represented at the ancillary events as well was yours truly entered the I’Maul In Poker Tournament hosted by Brian “do it for the kiddies” Vizard to benefit the US Rugby Foundation. Using the never back down decision making and keen analytical skills honed as a referee I managed to take 2nd in the tournament, winning a tidy sum of money that was subsequently donated back to the Monte Carlo over the rest of the weekend.

Champions Again At Last!

A hugely successful weekend for American rugby continued as our 15s side claimed their first major international trophy since the 1924 Olympics. It looked like we would need to beat Argentina in Argentina – a tall task indeed – to win the competition because of the point differential advantage that the Pumas had but with a try at full time the USA not only tied Argentina but unexpectedly secured a vital bonus point to edge out the Argies for the title. Yes. the Americas Rugby Championship is finally America’s.

Question Of The Week #1

If the ball travels 10 meters in the air but is blown back by the wind is it a live ball? (Answer: Yes. The ball just has to reach the 10m line, be it in the air or on the ground. After that play on. Law 13.5)

Question Of The Week #2

(Looking up at the light towers swaying in the wind on Sunday) I wonder what the harmonic period of a light tower is?

Question Of The Week #3

(A lady at the charity poker tournament trying to sell raffle tickets to Dan Payne to fundraise for her club) So are you involved in rugby at all?

Dan Payne: No, I’m in sales.

Lady: Oh? What do you sell?

Dan: Memberships.

Between Two Pelicans

Yes, our Pulitzer worthy segment Between Two Pelicans was in high gear this week with yet another high profile interview that will be presented in the next issue of Hail Pelicus because when the questions are that hard hitting everyone needs time to heal. Hail Pelicus also managed a few on the spot interviews with prominent rugby figures as well as “fans in the stands”. Here is a brief excerpt that I swear is true.

Hail Pelicus: We are here with CSUMB and San Jose Seahawk stalwart Matai Leuta after winning 3rd place with the USA in front of the home fans. Matai, you have worked with a few high profile coaches over the years so I have to ask, who is more likely to take his shirt off during a match, Mike Friday or Tory Golino?

I tell ya, you can’t get that kind of journalism just anywhere these days.

New Kit

If you weren’t at the last Society Meeting then you missed out on a chance to get your kit, including the kit bags. The (astonishingly stylish) new kit will be distributed if I see you at some point in the next couple of weeks and at the Society meetings. I will do my best to find someone to distribute kit to those who can not make the meetings but feel free to reach out to me at hailpelicus@pelicanrefs.com if you plan to be in the San Jose area.

Kickoff was close to 8pm on a cloudless crisp and nearly cold Friday night. Perfect winter rugby conditions. Both Santa Rosa and Cal Maritime were ready for a competitive match. Clearly they knew each other well. At half time it was a try a piece with Santa Rosa having also kicked a conversion and pk for a 10-5 lead. From then Santa Rosa’s backs shone with some lovey tries. Three tries to one in the second half.

Well that escalated quickly. On a beautiful, crisp, clear day at the Tom Bates fields Berkeley hosted Life West. The score was fairly close at half time, standing at 7 – 26 in favor of the visitors. Berkeley seemed to be coming on late in the frame, and a score or two early on after the break seemed possible. It was not to be. Life came screaming out of the gates after halftime and ran away with match. Berkeley showed the sportsmanship and positive attitude one would expect from such a storied program right through the end. Many thanks to both sides for a good run.

Date: 02/25/2017
Baracus 12 – Fresno 25
Referee: Gordon, Preston

The fields at the Ward Recreation Center in San Francisco have been totally redone in the recent past, with 2 baseball diamonds and 2 full-size soccer fields laid out, all on artificial turf, where there used to be a lumpy, muddy, mess. This is great for rugby, once everyone is clear about which lines will be used for our sport. We didn’t have any problems with this, but I’d suggest insisting that flags/cones/etc be used before playing rugby on these fields.

On to the game: Fresno traveled with a roster of 20, while Baracus put out a side of 23. Both looked to be evenly matched. Fresno had a large share of possession in the Baracus 22 to begin the game and scored their first converted try after just 4 minutes. Baracus responded with some good counterattacking and got a try of their own at 15′ but were unable to convert it. For about the next 20 minutes, there was no scoring, just a handful of penalties and a fairly high number of scrums and lineouts. Fresno got another unconverted try at 33′, and then padded their lead with a penalty goal at 38′ to go into halftime up 15-5.

Baracus had a stronger second half, with their defense limiting Fresno to another penalty goal at 48′ before we spent the next 30 minutes largely going back and forth in the middle of the field with neither team able to get over the line. At 66′ the Baracus #10 was shown yellow for an unnecessary late tackle, but still nobody scored any points for the next 10 minutes. As the game wrapped up, Fresno scored a converted try at 78′ to seal their win, but Baracus, to their credit, responded with their second (converted) try at 82′ to leave things at 25-12 to the visitors.

In the B side game, which was tens for 20 minutes, Baracus scored 5 tries to 2 if I recall correctly. This was a good warm-down and everyone seemed to have fun. Thanks to all for a nice Saturday.

Date: 02/25/2017
Berkeley 14 – Napa 57
Referee: Bretz, Paul

Napa scored 28 points in the first half and 29 in the second and in the process won their 5th straight match. Berkeley scored their 14 points in the second half. Napa used their speed out wide to control the pace of the game.

#1 vs #14. At the slightly soggy SMC stadium, SMC took on Cal Poly. After SMC scored 3 tries in the first 6 minutes I knew which type of game it would be. There was some issues with the scrums stemming from the SMC loosehead and CP tighthead. CP’s only points came from a penalty try on collapsed scrum. Thanks to Scott & Peter helping sort out the scrums.

After being AR for the A game which was well reffed by Tim Lew in which St Mary’s dominated, a similar tone was set in the B side game, which began with a quick try to St Mary’s. The St Marys pack was dominant with some nice rolling maul play, dominant srummaging on occasion winning against the head purely with power and by pushing. St Mary’s backs were on song with some slick passing and solid defense. Cal Poly was impressive in that they were playing hard, all in, until the final whistle.

Drove down Highway 1 to Fort Ord on a blustery and cool Saturday for a match of these D2 women squads, the Otters of Monterey Bay and the Dons of San Francisco. Indicative of the recent weather was the fact that I could see snow on the higher peaks of the Santa Lucia Mountains as I headed south. CSUMB hadn’t played a game on their home turf since early November, and their only win of the season so far was way back in early October against USF in The City. USF had brought down exactly 15 players, and CSUMB had their starting 15 plus another 5 on the touchlines, the most they’ve had dressed out for a match, and something to note as two other players from the past two or three seasons were in street clothes.
The game started under sunny skies that would eventually turn grey, and for about the first ten minutes both teams seemed not able to function, making passing and handling errors, meaning numerous scrums that were uncontested. Finally USF scored at 20 minutes from a lineout in CSUMB’s quarter, when Catroina Clohessy, inside center, took a pass from the flyhalf and found a nice gap to run through. The conversion failed. CSUMB’s Jannicke Stien scored a try from some loose play in the USF half of the pitch five minutes later, the ball placed near to the posts for an easy conversion made by herself. Stien had switched to playing inside center, a position better suited for her speed and handling ability than flanker or #8. Another five minutes of play saw Sydney Abel score a try for five more points. Abel was all over the pitch at breakdowns, and instigating counter rucks for turnovers at times, and smuggling ball away from CSUMB’s ball carrier’s, whether in a stand up tackle in a maul or on the ground at the tackle. The half would end with a penalty given against USF for an offside infringement as one back was standing in defense well past the hindmost foot at a ruck, and playing advantage two of their players collided in a tackle attempt, the scrum half getting a head knock that would take her out of the match, leaving them with 14 for the second half. CSUMB choose to kick a goal, as the attempt was some 25 meters out, but Stien’s kick was short of the posts, and USF’s attempt to run out of their own end failed with a knock from which CSUMB did not accrue an advantage, ending the first half of play with a 10-7 lead for the visitors.

CSUMB scored an uncoverted try from loose play within a few minutes of play to open the second half, this time full back Golden Sekai doing the honors. At this point in the match passes were finding hands, and play was more fluid overall, and at 52 minutes USF would score what I would have said was the try of the match, as a ball that was turned over at half way gave some USF’s backs a chance to break away, with Clohessy taking a pass from wing Sapphire Dedrick some twenty meters out to scamper into the in-goal and round her way past the last defender to place the ball right under the posts. The conversion was good and USF had a 17-12 lead. It didn’t last long, as Stien would score another try as the game was near three quarters gone, this time taking a ball from a ruck just a few meters out from USF’s goal line. CSUMB started to use their one player advantage, putting pressure on USF and keeping possession of the ball for longer phases of play. CSUMB would then lose Clohessy with an injury, taking their numbers down to 13. Five minutes before time scrum half Alyson Carpenter would score an unconverted try near the left hand corner. A few minutes later Terree Okabe, one of CSUMB’s veteran players, would score from loose play deep in USF’s quarter, dragging a few USF players with her over the goal line. I checked to make sure the ball had been grounded and not held up off the ground, and awarded the try. CSUMB had scored three tries and added 15 points in 18 minutes of play. With no time left USF would add 5 more points and score another try by Sydney Abel, after some great efforts by the Lady Dons to keep the ball alive and drive downfield against a tiring Lady Otter side. Final score: CSUMB 27, USF 24.

After walking off the pitch and taking a seat at halfway, and cooling off from the match, I noticed how cold it felt, getting into my sweats and bundling up. I’m heading to the UK for a good part of March, and thought to myself that the day’s weather had a UK feel to it. So my next match should be a U-16 game at Bredon Rugby Club in the West Midlands, and then on March 12 a women’s club side match, Paignton the home side versus Exonian Ladies in South Devon.

CSUMB will next be taking a road trip in early April to play in a tournament up in Oregon, though some of their players expressed a desire to play St. Mary’s and make up the cancelled game from a week prior. Having seen them play quite often these last two seasons, I see a lot of improvement on their side, and next season they should have one of their best back line players back from spending a year studying in Spain. USF hasn’t had as good a season as last, as they beat CSUMB twice, and as with Santa Clara, seems to be lacking in players overall with little depth to their roster. I have to say they certainly played with a lot of effort, and they have some players with talent, especially Clohessy and Abel.

Date: 02/25/2017
CSUMB 5 – USF 28
Referee: Hinkin, James

A fun game amongst two disciplined sides. The weather held off nicely and the CSUMB pitch was in excellent condition. The score does not indicate the even tenor of the match (the score was 5-6 at half time), however in the second half USF was more precise and lethal in the attacking third.

Date: 02/25/2017
Google 74 – Central Coast 22
Referee: Pohlman, John

It’s 8:00PM on a Saturday night and I am blowing the whistle to start the Google verses Aptos/Central Coast Rugby game at Google’s artificial turf field in Mt. View. Aptos received the opening kick and hard charging #8 Tui Tuivailia scored a multi phase try at 3 minutes. The score woke up Google, who had close to thirty players, which responded by scoring six first half tries lead by #3 captain Peter Danenberg’s score at 26 minutes. Half time score Google 38 Aptos 5.
Aptos has some talented players but thin on numbers. Aptos lost almost every scrum which simply led to Googles backs getting numerously more opportunities.
Second half Google substituted in some new CIPP’ed players especially a beast at inside center who either scored or assisted in at least three of Googles six second half try s. Aptos game to the end, scored three second half tries led by their speedy backs. Final score Google 74 Aptos 22.
Watch out Division three, if Google keeps this team together we could be looking at a Division 3 national champ.

Played on the football field that has less than standard lines, teams were slipping on the turf. This game pitted a highly ranked single school versus a highly ranked club team. Both teams had errors at the breakdown and too many uncontrolled errors.

The rain spared us, but the pitch did not want to fully cooperate. Unfortunately numbers didnt show up for SFGG and they forfeited before we began, but that didnt mean we still didnt play. After being lent a few players by Life we had ourselves a match.

Much to everyone’s surprise SFGG made the best of their borrowed players and opened up the games first score, a try in the corner. But Life turned right around and scored right bac,k. This was the story of the days match. Whenever GG scored Life responded within minutes. Slowly, Life built their lead. And they put up 24 – 12 in the first half and then another 29 – 12 second half. Putting the final score at 53 – 24.

Date: 02/25/2017
Marin 38 – Mendocino 10
Referee: Labozzetta, Chris

No report received

Date: 02/25/2017
Redwood 53 – Shasta 15
Referee: Bertolone, Cary

4 games at For Petes Sake in Santa Rosa. High School, womens rugby, my game and a college game after. Shasta showed up with about 12-13 players, but the ones that did were good players. Redwood loaned them a couple of guys and everyone had a great time with big hits, nice passing, good rucking and a few really fast guys. Redwood was up 29-5 at half, then outscored Shasta 4 tries to 2 in the second half. No foul play; good clean rugby from everyone. It was a pleasure to ref. Good food and beer too.

Blackhawks shows very good ball skills from the get go. First try was 1.46 minutes from the kick off. Silicon Valley did not just let Sac Blackhawks to put score on the board. Blackhawks got their skill together and scored 50-7 at the half time. Ben Parker clear up his bench with most of his B players and still produce 32 more points. Is was very good, to see Silicon Valley put up a fight all the way 80 minutes game. Thanks to both coaches and team mate for a very clean and fun rugby time. After match was a BOMB !!!

This match was played on an all weather pitch. San Jose marched straight down for the opening try on a nice run down the sidelines by the wing. Sacramento quickly righted itself and stayed that way the remainder of the day. Flyhalf Eric poached a SJ ball and quick ball out to a crashing fullback resulted in the first of many tries. Both teams played smart rugby at the breakdown but Sacramento proved too explosive in the backs, which resulted in tries for quick stepping winger Isaac and inside center DJ. Strong forward play rewarded Sacramento with another try. 26-5 at halftime. SJ relied not enough on their tank of an inside center, who always required 3 players to bring to ground. They had good one off runners, notably number 5, but their phases were left wanting for mishandling errors. Sacramento brought on subs early in the second half. The match see sawed back and forth with good phases of play from both teams but they were repelled always near the try lines. Finally a good break by Eric resulted in the first try of the second half for Sacramento. SJ responded with multiple phases allowing their flyhalf to slice through the defense for SJs second try. Luke Sauser from Sacramento scored a great individual try at the death on a bullocking run. Great game, very few penalties.

Really fun, competitive game played in the early spring sunshine at Sac State. Both teams were playing loose — not much structure, but a whole lot of energy and creativity going on, which kept me on my toes for the full 80 minutes. Sac State pinched an early try before anybody really got started, but Santa Clara got on the board themselves after 8 minutes. Another penalty by Sac State took the score to 10-5 after 10 minutes.

After the restart, I had my 3rd penalty against Sac State in the first 12 minutes, all for not rolling away, all by #7. He promptly left for a ten minute relaxation break (he got lucky sometime after he came back on, when he deliberately killed the play again — I was mulling whether this was now enough and he could leave permanently, but Santa Clara quick-tapped and ran in for a try, so I never got to a decision). Santa Clara pressured, but came up empty from their man advantage, only to score immediately upon his return. The first couple of restarts had been 2 feet over the line, so before the restart I asked the kicker to ensure he wasn’t kicking in front of the line — his reply was that “this isn’t aussie rules, I can do what I want.” I told him to go right ahead…

Ultimately we went into the half with the hosts up 17-10.

The second half remained tight for the first thirty seconds or so, then the game went back to its fast and loose character, with Santa Clara scoring twice in the first 5 minutes and taking the lead. We went back and forth, with two more tries to each side, and with ten minutes to go, Sac State were within 3 points with a man advantage. It was shaping up for a barn-burning finish, but then Sac State ran out of gas, and Santa Clara ran over three tries in the last 10 minutes. The score ultimately 53-29, but full credit to both sides for a fun match to referee.

[Footnote: every other restart by Sac State was from right on the line. He might have a bit of an attitude, but he’s at least smart enough not to challenge the guy with the whistle. Also 13.1.a]

Everyone was glad for a sunny day and dry pitch at CSU Sacramento. Nice crowd with a new coach doing a good job for the Hornets, and my first time reffing St. Mary’s College. Even match early, but St. Mary’s picked and drove to a good margin of victory.

Santa Rosa punched Life West B in the mouth with two early tries. LWB fought back well and scored several of their own. Only a conversion separated the score at half. 3rd quarter was a stalemate as exhaustion took over. LWB’s fitness and experience showed in the final quarter with several tries to pull away. Very competitive match and a joy to referee.

American River College’s (AR) forwards dominated the game. The Sonoma State (SSU) scum was outsized and outmatched. AR won all their own scrums and most of SSUs. The score at half was SSU 0 : AR 22 {4 tries, 1 conversion}. AR sent in their forward reserves for most of the second half. AR scored 2 more tries in the second half (no conversions). SSU did manage to punch it in on the last play of the game (1 try, no conversion). Final score SSU 5 : AR 32.

St. Mary’s was ahead 17-0 before Cal Poly got on the board. HT 22-7. Second half was a continuation of the first. Both teams played a well-disciplined match but the Mustangs left too many holes exposed in the back line for the Gaels to exploit. FT SMC 46-7.

NB: If you are a trainer/medic and the prone player you are tending to says he has a headache, it shouldn’t take the referee to determine he should be replaced and seek further evaluation.

This was my first game ever as a referee. I was a little bit tired because I ran touch for the first 2 games because of my nerves. I was trying to calm down and get my mind working in referee mode, since it’s not a mode I’m used to thinking in (especially as a recently “retired” player). I definitely need to work on my positioning, mostly getting closer to the breakdowns quickly and staying even with the ball. Prior to starting my biggest concern was being in the way, so it doesn’t shock me that I was further away than I would’ve liked/needed to be. I felt pretty confident about the laws and even making calls, although several times things got a mess and I wasn’t sure how to call it because there was a lot going on. At the end of the day, I feel like I did well asserting my authority–especially since a couple of the Fresno men were questioning me and harassing me during the match about calls and things I missed, etc. That was the most frustrating actually, being badgered about calls and feeling disrespected. I don’t have the law book memorized to a tee, but I do know most of the laws much better than most, and I feel correct with my judgment. Additionally, I truly did enjoy running around in the mix! I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, and I even cried afterwards trying to process all my feelings about what just happened. However, I do see it as a fun challenge for myself to learn more and do better every time 🙂

The game itself was low skill, especially on the part of Fresno State with a lot of new players. I did try to play a lot of advantage to keep a flow of play, which seemed to be good for a first timer. Even though Stanford played with 14 and we had uncontested scrums due to a lack of front row personnel, and the halves were cut short because of the players being beat up and tired, they had the smarter sense of play and were able to capitalize on their opportunities to score. Stanford received more penalties than Fresno, mostly surrounding slowing the ball down at the breakdown with the first player and then adding a 2nd and 3rd in to contest the ball which then led to a turnover. I saw this as an unfair advantage and blew them up. They were asking me to look at Fresno State sealing, which I did see but Stanford was the first continuous offender by slowing the ball down, which caused Fresno State to have to seal to win the breakdowns fairly (partly due to lack of skill, partly due to Stanford deliberately slowing the ball down). On the next occasion I’m looking forward to having live scrums!

It was a wonderful day for rugby at Stanford’s Steuber Rugby Field. I was hoping for a high intensity, closely contested match between Cal and Stanford for Stanford’s parents weekend, but I was slightly disappointed. Stanford scored on a breakaway only 2 minutes into the first half and stayed in the driver’s seat for the rest of the match. They forced multiple turnovers with aggressive counter rucking, and had a massive advantage over the Cal scrum. Cal was able to score twice in the first half, keeping it close at 36-12 after the first half, but they were shut out in the second half due to excellent goal line defense by Stanford (Stanford held the ball up on 3 separate occasions). Stanford managed to score twice more in the second half, but it seemed as though they were content to sit back and play defense rather then press their already sizable lead. In the end, it was Stanford pleasing their home crowd 46-12 over the Cal Golden Bears.

Great day for rugby in Davis, warming to the mid 50s, but felt warmer in the sun.
Pretty much all UCD in the first half with score at halftime 29 to 7. Second half was closer but UCD out scored Santa Cruz 24 to 12.
Jim

Date: 02/25/2017
UC Davis B – UC Santa Cruz B
Referee: Crenshaw, Jim

Martin had a nice match. Scrums and lineouts were good. Needs to improve penalty timing and signals. Talks a little more than necessary. Overall a nice controlled match .

It was a brisk afternoon at UC Davis Russell Field and the pitch was in good shape. Davis started strong and looked set to run up a big score but Santa Cruz hung in there and fought back with two converted tries. One yellow card for repeated high tackles but other that that it was a spirited well contested competition.

Bright clear day! Pitch was soft but firm…perfect. The B side women asked to have 4 20 min quarters. Davis also asked to have as many subs as they liked at the quarters, and they had many more players so I reminded Chico that this was to their disadvantage since they had fewer players, but the captain agreed to the Davis request.
Davis won the toss and elected to receive.

Davis consistently out ran the Chico backs, but the forwards were pretty well matched. Both sides ran and hit hard.

I had to make a very controversial call at a goal-line ruck. Chico was defending and recovered the ball, however in order to move the ball away from the goal line, she crawled along the ground with the ball. I gave a failure to release penalty which resulted in a score by Davis. The Chico coach came onto the pitch and argued with me on this point..but I was 2 meters from the play and he was 50 meters…soooo

(EDITOR’S NOTE: You got that call correct – a player may not crawl on the ground with the ball. I am more concerned with the coach coming on the field as it sounds like this was during the match.)

There were 2 high tackle penalties called. I gave verbal warnings as well as the penalties.

There were several rucks where the ball exited to the side, so the ball was out. But the women kept up the wrestling match, which ended up in some coming off the feet…however, the ball was out…so what happens after is just noise. Right?
I called lots of other penalties: hands in the ruck, not releasing, obstruction. And second row collapsing the scrum. This was after a warning to Chico that if you can’t handle the pressure, you need to just move backwards

31 penalties (as reported by CSUMB coach all deserved), two (could have been 5-6) yellow cards (repeated team infringements), one case of handbags that even the individuals involved can’t figure out why, two opportunities for medics to enter the field of play. Both teams walking away satisfied: Priceless. Glad I have access to a TENS unit.

Fresno started strongly and had some strong sections to their game, overall UC Davis had better game management and better organization overall. At half time the visitors led 21-12 (3 tries to 2), in the second half the visitors added another 4 tries to the home side 2 additional scores for a final of 43-24.

Date: 03/04/2017
SFSU 19 – Chico State 73
Referee: Gordon, Preston

What looked to be a rainy afternoon turned into great weather for rugby, with scattered clouds, sunshine, and a cool breeze at Cal Maritime. The teams didn’t disappoint, playing a fast game and scoring 92 points in aggregate, while also listening well – there were perhaps 9 penalties in the whole match. Chico State brought a full squad, including reserves for the B-side game. SF State had 19 players, although unfortunately I had to limit them to an 18-man roster because they had only 4 suitably trained front row players (having a law book in one’s bag makes these kinds of pre-game explanations of law 3.5 very credible, as well as easy).

After a very short delay to procure an acceptably-inflated ball, we kicked off a couple of minutes after 1300. The sides appeared to be fairly equally matched for the first ~15 minutes. Chico State scored a try in the 8th minute, converting it easily, then repeating that process 3 minutes later. Although Chico State was taking advantage of their scrum dominance, SF State seems to be holding up well in defense and also executing attacks of their own. The third converted try for Chico State at 17′ began to open the gap, however. Down 21-0, for most of the following 12 minutes SF State was able to hold on to the ball while staying in the opponent’s half, though ultimately not getting any points out of it. Chico State got another brace of converted tries within 4 minutes at 29′ and 33′ though, and when the half finished at 35-0 in their favor, I figured the game might turn into a one-sided track meet.

Shortly after Chico State kicked off the second half, SF State caught the defense napping and scored their first converted try at 42′. Given the immediate response of Chico State, with an unconverted try at 43′, I figured that might have been a fluke. Chico State added 3 more converted tries at 48′, 52, and 57′ to pad their comfortable lead. At that point they seemed to take their foot off the gas, and SF State snuck a back around the outside to score at 63′ (converted), and followed that up by returning the restart kick for another (unconverted) try. at 65′ to pull within 42 points at 61-19 down. At 70′ SF State’s 4th front row player, who had replaced their starting loosehead prop, had to leave the pitch due to an injury. Luckily there were only 2 uncontested scrums in the remainder of the match. Chico State finished with the last two tries of the game, one converted at 71′ and one unconverted at 73′, to clear 70 points.

I’d like to thank both teams for an excellent, fast, and clean game of rugby, and also to Tim Mulholland for ARing.

It was a wonderful day for rugby at St. Mary’s rugby stadium. It had been raining on and off throughout the afternoon, including for a 10 minute section of the A side match. However, the weather stayed clear throughout the B side match despite some nasty looking clouds. St. Mary’s started the scoring 4 minutes into the first half and never looked back. They tallied 35 points in the first half while SDSU could only manage 7. Repeatedly, the speed, agility, and superior skill of the St. Mary’s players got the better of the SDSU players, despite their best efforts. In the second half, it was more of the same. St Mary’s put up 57 while SDSU could only manage 5.

Date: 03/04/2017
Stanford 67 – SJSU 12
Referee: Bertolone, Cary

Stueber field was looking perfect, we kicked off at 1:00 PM on a partly cloudy day. Within 2 minutes, Stanford broke through for a converted try and a 7-0 lead. After that, things evened out and it wasn’t until the 20th minute that Stanford scored another Try. SJSU lost a player for 10 minutes, on that try, but it took 9 more minutes for Stanford to convert again. It was 26 -0 at the half, although San Jose almost scored a try while they camped out right in front of the try zone for 5 minutes, which consisted of a lot of good defense on the part of Stanford. In the second half, Stanford scored on their own kick off with less than one minute into the half. They scored a penalty kick and another try before SJSU mounted some offense of their own. On the 18th minute into the second half, San Jose took advantage of some Stanford mistakes and with nifty passes, scored a try. Four minutes later, they scored another one and San Jose thought they were back in it. Two minutes later, Stanford dotted one down and they scored three more tries after that. Stanford had a player at hooker, his first game at that position, Guy Kasnick, and he scored about 4 tries, kicked the penalty kick and all of the conversions, and was a huge contributor towards the Stanford win. Really good player. Great game, coaches were nice, students were great and the facility was supreme.

Date: 03/05/2017
UNR 32 – UCSC 17
Referee: Pescetti, David

On a rare frigid snowy Sunday, what is this football?, in the high sierras two teams met. A field covered in white snow, lines plowed, snow gently falling, we played a physical and punishing match.

The slugs against a wolf pack. Despite their mascots slow appearance, slugs, their play was anything but. Yet Reno led off the scoring scoring in the corner 7 minutes into the game. It was surprising and because of the snow it took everyone a second to realize he was in the try zone. The slugs did stabilize and counter punch 5 minutes later tying the game up at 5 a piece. The kickers were stymied all day in the snow, windy, and numbing conditions. A scoreless 24 minutes went by until the slugs put another score on the board. but with 0 time remaining in the half, the wolf pack evened the game. At the half it was 10 all.

The second half was the difference maker in this one. But again there was a flurry of action in the opening minutes where Reno scored two tries and a conversion and Santa Cruz a converted try. With under 5 minutes left in the game Reno was up 5, 23 – 17. But Reno was just too much for the Slugs on this snowy winter day. With the slugs exhausted trying to punch in to have a chance, a misplay led to a 90 meter prop try to seal the game for Reno.

Final UNR 32 – UCSC 17

Date: 03/05/2017
UNR B 19 – UCSC B 10
Referee: Reagle, Sam

It snowed.

This Week’s Photo

I read the news today, oh boy! Hard hitting journalism is just a day in the life of Hail Pelicus, even if it means staying an extra day in Las Vegas to attend the after party. Here is Pelicus Pedem Referre is getting the story from Matai Leuta.